Activities of Mick WALLACE related to 2021/2128(DEC)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Food Safety Authority for the financial year 2020
Amendments (12)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the contribution of the European Food Safety Authority (the 'Authority') to the safety of the Union food and feed chain, and its considerableto improving animal welfare, urges the Authority to step up its efforts in providing risk managers with timely, comprehensive, independent and up-to- date scientific advice on questions linked to the food chain,and feed chain, and to communicating more clearly to the public on its outputs and the information on which they are based, and cooperating with interested parties and institutional partnersand sometimes lack thereof on which they are based, to promote coherence and trust in the food safety system;
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Believes that the Authority should continue to pay special attention to public opinion, and commit itself to increased openness, transparency and scrutiny to and by the public and independent scientists;
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Notes that the Authority's final budget for 2020 was EUR 103 023 255,80, and underlines that the entire sum derives from the Union budget and this contributes to Authority's independence; notes that the budget monitoring efforts during 2020 resulted in an implementation rate of 100 % for commitment appropriations and 88 % for payment appropriations; insists that the Authority be granted sufficient resources to carry out its tasks;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Recalls that, in 2020, Parliament adopted two objections to extensions of approval periods of active ingredients used in pesticides which meet the cut-off criteria and should therefore not be authorised for use in the EU1a; urges the Authority to speed up its assessment of all draft review reports of active ingredients and to do all it can to speed up the reassessment process by the Reporting Member States in order to avoid any new extensions of hazardous pesticides, stresses that the backlog in reassessing biocides is of particular concern as well and increased efforts are needed to resolve this; _________________ 1aEuropean Parliament resolution of 26 November 2020 on Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1511 of 16 October 2020 amending Implementing Regulation (EU) No 540/2011 as regards the extension of the approval periods of the active substances amidosulfuron, bifenox, chlorotoluron, clofentezine, clomazone, cypermethrin, daminozide, deltamethrin, dicamba, difenoconazole, diflufenican, fenoxaprop- P, fenpropidin, fludioxonil, flufenacet, fosthiazate, indoxacarb, lenacil, MCPA, MCPB, nicosulfuron, paraffin oils, picloram, prosulfocarb, sulphur, triflusulfuron and tritosulfuron (OJ C 425, 20.10.2021, p. 87) and European Parliament resolution of 10 June 2021 on Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/745 of 6 May 2021 amending Implementing Regulation (EU) No 540/2011 as regards the extension of the approval periods of the active substances aluminium ammonium sulphate, aluminium silicate, beflubutamid, benthiavalicarb, bifenazate, boscalid, calcium carbonate, captan, carbon dioxide, cymoxanil, dimethomorph, ethephon, extract from tea tree, famoxadone, fat distillation residues, fatty acids C7 to C20, flumioxazine, fluoxastrobin, flurochloridone, folpet, formetanate, gibberellic acid, gibberellins, heptamaloxyloglucan, hydrolysed proteins, iron sulphate, metazachlor, metribuzin, milbemectin, Paecilomyces lilacinus strain 251, phenmedipham, phosmet, pirimiphos-methyl, plant oils/rape seed oil, potassium hydrogen carbonate, propamocarb, prothioconazole, quartz sand, fish oil, repellents by smell of animal or plant origin/sheep fat, S- metolachlor, Straight Chain Lepidopteran Pheromones, tebuconazole and urea (not yet published in the Official Journal) .
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Stresses that under no circumstances should the approval period of Glyphosate be extended after its expiration date of 16 December 2022;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 c (new)
Paragraph 5 c (new)
5c. Demands a full, independent and completely transparent risk assessment of glyphosate, taking into account all available scientific evidence from international organisations such as the IARC and from peer-reviews independent scientific literature, as well as the sustainability goals of the Green Deal and the Farm to Fork Strategy;
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Reiterates its regrets that the research funding from companies falling under Authority's remit is not considered relevant to the cooling-off period, as long as amounts at stake do not rise above 25% of the total research budget managed by the expert and/or their research team, and that the threshold is applied to individual sources as opposed to all private sources combined; calls again for this policy to be updated without delay in order to remove the funding threshold from Authority's independence policy and ensure experts' interests are considered within the context of Authority's overall remit, in line with the Parliament's repeated requests on the matter;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6b. Deplores the Authority's general lack of transparency towards stakeholders; calls for the creation of a public database to monitor the risk assessment of all substances, such as suspected endocrine disruptors;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Notes with satisfaction that the Authority is moving towards cutting-edge technologies, incorporating new approach methodologies and artificial intelligence to avoid animal testing methods, encourages the Authority to increase its efforts to protect animal welfare even further and to promote the use of non-animal testing methods, also in its cooperation with other institutions;
Amendment 29 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Regrets that the new 2017 independence policy of the Authority has not led to any tangible change in its selection policy of external experts and in its working groups composition; notes for example that in the working group on the bee guidance revision, only 25% of the selected experts were publishing scientists on bees and pesticides; notes that among the experts heard by this working group, 50% of them presented an evident conflict of interest due to their affiliation to "contract research organisations”.
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Considers that it is the role of the Authority to look actively for high-level experts and convince them to take part in its work, by acknowledging the relevance and reliability of their peer-reviewed research when conducting its own scientific analysis in line with article 8 (5) of Regulation (EC) No 1107/20091a. _________________ 1aRegulation (EC) No 1107/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market and repealing Council Directives 79/117/EEC and 91/414/EEC (OJ L 309, 24.11.2009, p. 1).
Amendment 42 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Recommends, based on the facts available, that discharge should not be granted to the Executive Director of the European Food Safety Authority in respect of the implementation of the Authority's budget for the financial year 2020.