This black out of central information is done by EFSA which has the job of preparing the forthcoming EU decision.
But is EFSA legally justified in keeping this information under wraps? The Aarhus convention a pan-European UN-convention from 1998 has been binding EU-law since 2003. This law says information related to emissions to the environment must not be withheld on the ground of protecting commercial interests.
This was underlined by the EU court in Luxembourg in March 2019. The court said information concerning the herbicide glyphosate, known under the product name Roundup, could not be held back by EFSA.
With reference to the glyphosate-judgement we have asked EFSA to release the proposed decision on chlorpyrifos – answer pending at the time of writing.
The anonymous lawmakers
On top of the known spread, the scientists’ warnings, the producers’ role, and the restricted public information there is one more aspect of chlorpyrifos to be unfolded; how the EU will decide either to ban or to approve the future for the disputed pesticide.
Followers of EU-politics will know the two legislative institutions are the Council, representing the member states, and the Parliament representing the peoples of Europe. This does not apply for approval of pesticides. Here the final decision will be taken by a committee of national experts on the suggestion of the European Commission, a non-elected body of civil servants.
Lithuanian Vytenis Andriukaitis is commissioner for health and food safety. Below him is the Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety headed by Anne Bucher, and below her the directorate for health and food audits and analysis, and so on.
The actual evaluation of chlorpyrifos will be done by the unit for pesticides and biocides, at the 6th levels from the top in the hierarchy.
”But, other directorate-general will also be consulted before the final decision, ” says an EU Commission spokesperson.
This committee can reject the Commission’s proposal if it’s members can form the necessary majority. Should that happen the Commissions can turn to an Appeal committee for a re-assessment.
At the time of writing it is known when meetings are scheduled for the relevant committee. The agenda for these meetings is not. We are not supposed to know who the participants in these meetings are. What suggestion they will be asked to consider is still officially unknown.
Nevertheless a Commission source indicates:
”The Commission won’t go forward with the renewal of the authorisation because the health concerns are very clear”.
Adding to this, the NGO PAN Europe said:
”We’ve heard in the corridor that chlorpyrifos doesn’t meet the approval criteria.”
Read the full investigation on Investigative Reporting Denmark.