On Wednesday 27 September, the environmental NGOs Global 2000, PAN Europe, PAN Germany and Générations futures filed a new criminal complaint with the Vienna prosecutor’s office against the Bayer-led group of industrial partners for misrepresenting or allegedly withholding unfavourable data and scientific studies on the carcinogenic and neurotoxic effects of glyphosate in their application for renewal of authorisation, in breach of the requirements of the EU Pesticides Regulation (1107/2009).
The complaint, published on the same day, comes ahead of the vote by Member States in the ScoPAFF Standing Committee (12-13 October) on the European Commission’s proposal to renew the authorisation of the active substance glyphosate in the EU for a further 10 years (see EUROPE 13258/6, 13254/1). NGOs are using this as an opportunity to urge Member States to vote against the proposal.
According to the complainants, the majority of the available studies were not included in the current application for authorisation - in particular, an epidemiological study that revealed an increased risk of autism spectrum disorders in children whose mothers were exposed to glyphosate during pregnancy or in the first year of life.
“Applicants are required to disclose all available data and studies. Monsanto/Bayer seem to be acting in exactly the same way as in 2017, following an identical pattern”, said the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, Dr Joseph Unterweger, in a video conference.
Dr Angeliki Lysimachou, Head of Science and Policy at PAN Europe pointed out that the EU regulation imposes an obligation to ensure a high level of protection of the health of the general population - and in particular of vulnerable groups - and of the environment.
“It is the responsibility of the EU to protect human health and the environment”, she insisted.
She also pointed out that the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer had classified glyphosate as a probable carcinogen in 2015, and that in 2019, the European Parliament’s Special PEST Committee had exposed the shortcomings of the authorisation procedure in the EU (see EUROPE 13174/12).
“We call on all Member States to vote against re-authorisation. Yesterday, Austria announced that it would vote against it. We hope that others will follow”, said Dr Helmut Burtscher-Schaden, Environmental Chemist at Global 2000.
Wednesday’s complaint is a supplementary complaint to the one filed by NGOs in July 2019 against Monsanto on suspicion of concealing the health risks associated with glyphosate during the authorisation procedure that led, in 2017, to the 5-year renewal of glyphosate’s licence in the EU (see EUROPE 11913/1).
Although the criminal investigation has been launched, “unfortunately it was not possible to get insight into the file that should have been provided to us under the Aarhus Regulation. We still take the steps to get there”, added Dr Burtscher-Schaden.
Calling it “outrageous that Bayer has not disclosed a single new cancer study”, he added: “They had time enough!”
Link to the complaint (in German): https://aeur.eu/f/8r4 (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)