Brussels, 21/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - In Berlin on Thursday 21 April, a coalition of environmental NGOs, which firmly believe that the competent authorities in the EU have underestimated the cancer risk of glyphosate, lent their support to the legal proceedings brought in Germany on 2 March against Monsanto, the German Federal risk assessment Institute (Bfr) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
The Munich environmental institute (Umweltinstitut München) and Pesticide Action Germany joined forces with PAN Europe, the collective of NGOs behind the original proceedings, to provide the Prosecutor General in Berlin with new evidence to show that the institutions responsible for risk assessment systematically misinterpreted scientific studies on the controversial pesticide during the assessment procedure. They did this, PAN Europe argues in a press release, to downplay the cancer risks associated with glyphosate and facilitate the renewal of its authorisation.
This new evidence is based on the work of the epidemiologist Professor Eberhard Greiser of the University of Bremen, which analyses the assessment by the BfR and EFSA of the epidemiological studies on the correlation between glyphosate and cases of illness.
At a press conference, Prof. Greiser stressed that “the Bfr applied incorrect methods” to analyse and reject nearly all of the epidemiological studies, and criticised EFSA for having “approved these methods”.
Six NGOs (Global 2000, PAN Europe, PAN Germany, PAN UK, Générations futures (France), WeMove Europe, and Nature et Progrès Belgique) are behind the legal proceedings. The experts of the member states will take position in May on the Commission's proposed authorisation renewal, which it is reworking in order to achieve consensus (see EUROPE 11531 and 11525). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)