Press

Thomas Lönngren. Following correspondence with Dr Lönngren, the ALTER-EU press statement of 19 December 2011 has now been amended and the revised statement is available below.

Brussels, Wednesday 14 December 2011- The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has today published a new independence policy, aimed at improving EFSA's independence in delivering scientific opinions on food safety [1]. This new policy, developed following a public consultation and stakeholder workshop in October, will be up for approval by the EFSA Management Board when it meets on Thursday 15 December, in Warsaw.

Munich/ Brussels, 8 December 2011: The European Ombudsman has ruled in favour of a complaint filed by Testbiotech against the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) regarding its approach to the 'revolving door'. The case concerns a former senior staff member at EFSA, Dr Suzy Renckens, who was head of the unit responsible for the risk assessment of genetically engineered plants for five years until 2008. Dr Renckens, a Belgian national, then moved to a job at Syngenta, a company that produces and markets these plants.

BRUSSELS – More than half of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) panel responsible for giving the go-ahead for the approval of BASF’s genetically modified (GM) Amflora potato in 2010 had conflicts of interest, according to new research published by Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) [1].

Campaigners today called on the new president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, to cut his ties with an elite banking lobby group in order to protect the independence of the Central Bank.

The Plenary of the European Parliament yesterday voted overwhelmingly in favour of freezing part of the budget for the European Commission's expert groups until new rules are introduced to provide safeguards against their capture by special interests and to improve transparency.

ALTER-EU has welcomed this initiative by the Parliament to put pressure on the European Commission to prevent the corporate capture of EU policy preparation.

EFSA accused of legal bullying by campaign group

Brussels, 27 September – Campaigners today accused the European Food Safety Authority of using legal threats to try and intimidate its critics, after receiving a legal threat from the EU agency [1].

Research and campaign group Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) received a letter from EFSA’s Head of the Legal and Regulatory Affairs Unit following publication of an article highlighting hidden conflicts of interest among members of EFSA’s expert panel responsible for food additives.