By Martin Banks - 14th December 2011
I am recommending EFSA strengthens its rules
Nikiforos Diamandouros
The European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) is set to adopt a new 'independence' policy, it has emerged.
EFSA, which has an annual budget of about €73.2m, said the move is aimed at improving the agency's independence in delivering scientific opinions on food safety.
EFSA, which plays a key role in deciding which products and substances are safe to eat, has come in for criticism in recent months because of apparent conflicts of interest among its staff and experts.
It was criticised this week by European ombudsman Nikiforos Diamandouros over an alleged conflict of interest case involving one of its former senior employees.
The Parma-based agency has also been slammed by a leading Brussels-based NGO for its alleged heavy reliance on industry data and the way in which it "systematically excludes" independent scientific studies from its assessments.
In a ruling, the Strasbourg-based EU ombudsman said that EFSA's management had failed to act properly in the case of Suzy Renckens, who moved into a lobby job in 2008 with biotechnology company Syngenta after serving on the agency's GMO panel.
The ombudsman said the agency had not carried out as "thorough an assessment" of the alleged potential conflict of interest as it should have and called on EFSA to improve the way it applies its rules and procedures in future so-called "revolving door" cases, saying, "I am recommending EFSA strengthens its rules."
His comments follow criticism by Brussels-based NGO, Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and other organisations which have documented alleged links between EFSA's management board and some of its expert panels with the the agribusiness industry.
CEO said EFSA had failed to address many of the conflicts of interest identified and had failed to recognise the problem.
While EU institutions are responsible for the membership of EFSA's management board, EFSA is responsible for selecting the members of the expert panels and deciding in which cases there is a conflict of interest.
Parliament's environment committee is due to discuss EFSA's independence from industry next Tuesday when it decides whether to approve the agency's 2010 budget.
In a totally separate development, EFSA says that its management board will be asked to approve a draft 'independence' policy' at a meeting in Poland on Thursday.
It also issued a statement saying its procedures had been 'significantly' strengthened.
It said, "EFSA has thoroughly revised and improved its internal rules since 2008/2009, building on the experience gained from the past and recognising the need to address aspects relating to the public perception of potential conflicts of interest regarding staff appointments.
"These revisions aim at regulating conflicts of interests, allow for mitigating measures and more generally address matters relating to ethics and integrity of relevance to the authority’s staff."
Despite some criticism, EFSA has its supporters with UK deputy Julie Girling saying in a recent article in the Parliament Magazine the agency needed more support.
She also asked, "Why are we continuing to fund EFSA to provide us with information we do not seem to want to use?"
