9 Amendments of Michèle RIVASI related to 2016/2174(DEC)
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Welcomes the contribution of the Authority to the safety of the Union food and feed chain, by providing Union risk managers with comprehensive,and stresses that independent and up-to-date scientific advice on questions linked to the food chain, as well as clear communicationg clearly to the public on its outputs and the information on which they are based, and cooperating with interested parties and institutional partners to promote coherence and trust,are crucial in order to strengthen public trust in the Authority and in the Union food safety system;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Believes that the Authority should continue paying special attention to public opinion, and commit itself, as much as possible, to openness and, transparency, and independence from all companies whose products it has to evaluate; welcomes, in this respect, that in 2015, the Authority successfully tested its new methodological approach to the use of scientific evidence; also welcomes, in this context, the improvements in sharing data by opening up the data warehouse of the Authority to a growing number of stakeholders; calls on the Authority to review its independence policy swiftly and in a way that reassures the public about its independence from all regulated companies; calls on the Authority to strictly follow its independence policy whenever new members are appointed to its scientific panels and working groups; encourages the Authority to further progress on this path;
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. Stresses that a core element of scientific credibility is transparency as regards the scientific studies which have been considered, as well as reproducibility of the results;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6 b. Calls on the Authority to revise its access to documents policy, following the European Court of Justice's rulings on requests related to access to environmental documents from 23rd November 20161a . The Court ruled that, when a person requests access to environmental documents, the concept of 'information on emissions into the environment' covers, inter alia, information concerning the nature and effects of the release of a pesticide into air, water or soil, or onto plants, and that the confidentiality of commercial and industrial information may not be invoked to preclude the disclosure of such information; _________________ 1aJudgments in Cases C-673/13 P Commission v Stichting Greenpeace Nederland and PAN Europe and C- 442/14 Bayer CropScience and Stichting De Bijenstichting v College voor de toelating van gewasbeschermingsmiddelen en biociden; see http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/a pplication/pdf/2016-11/cp160128en.pdf
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 c (new)
Paragraph 6 c (new)
6 c. Believes that, in order to strengthen public trust in the Authority, the European Parliament should be closely involved in this process of revision of the Authority's conflict of interest rules and the related composition of a special working group in the board;
Amendment 21 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 d (new)
Paragraph 6 d (new)
6 d. Stresses that experts with financial interests in companies whose substances are regulated by the Authority shall not be allowed to sit in the Authority's scientific panels or working groups, and that no such expert should be appointed by the Authority before two years after his/her interests have expired; is convinced that the Authority should be endowed with a sufficient budget to hire independent in- house experts with no conflicts of interests;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 e (new)
Paragraph 6 e (new)
6 e. Is concerned that any staff reduction within the Authority could seriously damage its capacities and reputation; believes, therefore, that it should be ensured that no reduction of staff takes place;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 f (new)
Paragraph 6 f (new)
6 f. Believes that, in order to further the trust of the citizens of the Union, the Authority should take further steps as regards transparency and accountability, such as publishing the minutes of the its management board meetings, as well as the remunerations for experts' declared activities, and it should regularly check declarations of interests and publish the results as an annex to its yearly report;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Stresses that there were important milestones in the Authority’s communications with risk managers and the public in 2015: the launch of its new website based on extensive user research, and the move of the EFSA Journal to an external professional publishing platform. Progress was also made by the Applications Helpdesk, the Authority’s front office and support desk for the safety assessment of regulated products. With those and many other projects and initiatives, the Authority ensured that it remained an effective and trusted service of scientific advice for the interests of consumers Such projects and initiatives help enhancing a positive perception of the Authority within the Unionpublic;