On 10 May, the European Parliament voted against granting discharge of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) budget for the year 2010. By doing so, it adopted a report from its Committee on Budgetary Control criticising EFSA very harshly for conflicts of interest and revolving door cases (http://www.testbiotech.org/en/node/661).

On 8 May, just two days before the vote, Diána Bánáti, Chair of the EFSA Management Board, had resigned with immediate effect. She will take up a professional position at the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI). Diána Bánáti had been subject to criticism since September 2010 because she was Board Member of ILSI Europe. After leaving ILSI, she was re-elected as chair of EFSA’s Management Board in October 2011. Now she is returning to ILSI Europe, which is funded by food industry and agrochemical companies (http://www.testbiotech.org/en/node/656).

EFSA wrote a letter to ILSI explaining that according to its new regulations on independence, experts from ILSI are excluded from various working levels at EFSA:

"Regarding the classification of ILSI involvement as a category V activity “ad hoc or occasional consultancy”, EFSA’s new rules explicitly exclude the involvement of scientific experts participating in scientific work related to services provided to products, their development and/or assessment methods carried out on behalf of trade associations or other bodies with an interest in this subject matter, such as ILSI."
http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/press/news/120516a.htm

Obviously, in a reaction to the pressure from the EU Parliament, EFSA then decided to postpone the nomination of new experts for several scientific panels. The nominations, which were scheduled for 8 May, will now take place on 27 June.

From March 24 to 26, 2011 the Risks Pole of MRSH University of Caen hosted eighty people including a quarantine of international researchers for the annual ENSSER meeting  (European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility) chaired by Professor Angelika Hilbeck. The agenda of this meeting, entitled Sustainability and holistic assessment of technology and biotechnology, with its diversity and richness illustrated the multidisciplinary nature of the problem of risk assessment. This symposium was co-organized by the University of Caen MRSH-CNRS, Risks Pole-Quality and Sustainable Environment, CRIIGEN, ENSSER, the Citizen Science Foundation, GenØk and the Association  Health Environment Great West (Asego).

After an inventory established by the vice president of the environment committee at the European Parliament, Corinne Lepage, and a parallel situation with North American presented by Prof. Louise Vandelac, director of the Institute of Environmental Sciences, University of Quebec at Montreal, conferences have continued under different viewpoints: the health, environment, economy, law and ethics ... And sociologists have addressed the specific problems of assessing and the role of individuals in the perception of new technological hazards such as nanoparticles, GMOs, exposure to electromagnetic radiation, etc...

John Dalli, Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, has visited the European Parliament on Tuesday 13 July, Corinne Lepage has demanded a deep reform of expertise on GMOs.

As it stands, the Commission's proposal is unacceptable, says Corinne Lepage, as it does not give Member States any solid legal basis to prohibit some GMOs. The Commission's policy aiming at imposing GMO cultivation to Europe has failed, and Mr Barroso will not suppress the scientific controversy nor the accusations of conducting a laxist on GMOs by making promises to make small arrangements. 

Reforming European expertise is the only way to move the GMO debate forward, and EFSA direction declared itself open to experimenting new processes. The selection of EFSA GMO panel members should reflect all scientific views, not only industry's approach to health and environment risk evaluation. Pluralism, pluridisciplminarity and contradictory debates are the keys to a unbiased expertise process, that identifies risks and uncertainties. 

The EFSA GMO panel has been criticised by NGOs and biosafety experts for its bias in favor of GMOs and its use of selective quotations of scientific articles, aiming at putting aside elements showing a potential risks or scientific uncertainties.

John Dalli has presented on Tuesday to the Parliament Mr Barroso's proposal aiming at allowing Member States to ban on their territory the cultivation of GMOs authorised at the EU level.

Corinne Lepage, vice-president of the Environment committee, has committed to organise a debate between scientists from EFSA and scientists critical of the risk evaluation methodology used by the EFSA GMO panel.

Brussels wants to turn a blind eye to small contaminations from banned transgenic organisms, despite the uncertainties on health and the environment, according to Ouest France, 27 June 2008. 

Opinion column published in Le Figaro on Saturday 18 August 2007

This is a response to Michel Barnier (who is, this is just a reminder, the Minister of Agriculture and not Ecology or Health) is pleading, in a recent article published in Le Figaro, for a pacified debate on GMOs and on the necessity of continuing research, otherwise the United-States and China might take a definite lead over Europe! 

Portrait of Christian Vélot on 15 May 2008 in Le Monde entitled: "Christian Vélot Profession : lanceur d'alerte"

[Download the original article in French]