Glyphosate — arrangement with the Glyphosate Task Force?

11.4.2016

Question for written answer P-002915-16
to the Commission
Rule 130
Martin Häusling (Verts/ALE)

On 4 April 2016 Commissioner Andriukaitis sent an open letter to the Glyphosate Task Force (GTF), a private sector lobby group, calling on it to provide transparency regarding the studies — up to that point kept secret — which the EFSA is using to support the assertion that glyphosate is ‘probably not carcinogenic in humans’. The GTF replied on the same day, with the promise to set up reading rooms in which to consult the studies. The fact that the two letters were sent at the same time raises the suspicion that the Commission and the GTF were acting in collusion in order to pacify an anxious public concerned by this issue.

In its letter the GTF makes a point of saying that the studies are being published voluntarily and by way of an exception.

1. Can the Commission prove that it did not enter into any arrangement with the GTF regarding access to the industry studies on glyphosate?

2. Does the Commission intend to amend current EU legislation, for example its ‘proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) against their unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure’ (COM(2013)0813), in such a way as to ensure that studies or information of general interest would in future have to be made accessible to the public?