11 Amendments of Bart STAES related to 2017/2159(DEC)
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Observes that on 21 June 2017, the management board of the Authority adopted a new policy on independence to ensure the independence of all professionals involved in its scientific operations; notes that the new policy includes a new definition of what constitutes a conflict of interest, a comprehensive set of “cooling-off” rules, a requirement that experts declare the proportion of their annual earnings received from any organisation, body or company whose activities fall within the Authority’s areas of work; notes moreover that the Authority adopted unconditional restrictions to financial investments into business operators directly or indirectly concerned by the Authority’s outputs: notes that such interests are considered incompatible with any involvement as a member of the Authority’s scientific committee, scientific panels, working groups or peer review meetings; notes that experts sent by Member States will now have to fill the declarations of interests form;
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Observes that on 21 June 2017, the management board of the Authority adopted a new policy on independence to ensure the independence of all professionals involved in its scientific operations; notes that the new policy includes a new definition of what constitutes a conflict of interest, a comprehensive set of “cooling-off” rules including a ban on consultancy contracts, a requirement that experts declare the proportion of their annual earnings received from any organisation, body or company whose activities fall within the Authority’s areas of work; notes moreover that the Authority adopted unconditional restrictions to financial investments into business operators directly or indirectly concerned by the Authority’s outputs: notes that such interests are considered incompatible with any involvement as a member of the Authority’s scientific committee, scientific panels, working groups or peer review meetings;
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12 a. Is concerned that the scope of the Authority’s new independence policy, which only takes into account interests on “matters falling under the mandate of the relevant EFSA scientific group” and not “all material interests related to the companies whose products are assessed by the Authority and to any organisations funded by them” as the Parliament demanded, remains too narrow and thus perpetuates the Authority’s previous independence policy’s biggest limitation;
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 b (new)
Paragraph 12 b (new)
12 b. Is concerned that the Authority ignored the repeated calls of the Parliament to include research funding in the list of interests to be covered by the two-year cooling-off period, research funding being the main source of financial conflicts of interests among the Authority’s external experts;
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 c (new)
Paragraph 12 c (new)
12 c. Is concerned that the Authority did not follow the European Ombudsman’s January 2015 ruling which, observing that the Authority had “failed to take adequate account of the changing nature of universities in its conflict of interest rules and its Declarations of Interests forms”, asked the Authority to “revise its conflict of interest rules and the related instructions and forms it uses for declarations of interests” to make sure academia experts declare the details of the financial relationships between their university employers and their university employers’ industry partners;
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 d (new)
Paragraph 12 d (new)
12 d. Stresses that the Authority’s independence policy implementing rules, which were adopted end of 2017, did not remedy the above-mentioned problems, and that the Authority failed to seize the opportunity of the review of its independence policy to better prevent the occurrence of conflicts of interest scandals in the future;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 e (new)
Paragraph 12 e (new)
12 e. Calls on the Authority to report to the discharge authority on the implementation of its new independence policy;
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20 a (new)
Paragraph 20 a (new)
20 a. Notes with concern that criminal complaints have been filed against the Authority and Germany’s Bundesinstitute für Risikobewertung (BfR) by environmental NGOs in Austria, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and France over accusations of plagiarism and misconduct in their risk assessment of the active substance glyphosate;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 a (new)
Paragraph 31 a (new)
31 a. Notes with concern that the Authority currently lacks the financial resources to pay its external experts and perform all the new tasks it is asked to do, in particular on novel foods, risk communication and stakeholder engagement;
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 b (new)
Paragraph 31 b (new)
31 b. Notes that the Authority often comes under criticism for issues that are beyond its powers to change, such as specific aspects of the Union’s pesticides regulation in the case of glyphosate, or, on conflicts of interests, the shrinking availability of independent experts caused by Union and national research funding policies that encourage public private partnerships between universities and industry;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 c (new)
Paragraph 31 c (new)
31 c. Insists that the Commission and Member States substantially increases the Authority’s budget, and that the Commission reviews the Authority’s Founding Regulation, to give it the financial and legal resources it needs to perform all the tasks it is facing in correct conditions; in this perspective, any possible introduction of fees for industry should be done in a manner that protects the Authority’s integrity;