By Martin Banks - 21st March 2011
The members referred to in the CEO letter have openly declared all their interests in areas relevant to EFSA’s work”
Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle
Senior officials at an EU agency has hit back at allegations that four members of its management board have 'direct' links to the food industry.
Of the four board members of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Matthias Horst is said to be a chief lobbyist for the German food industry while Piet Vanthemsche allegedly has financial interests in the GM seed industry.
It is claimed that Milan Kovác and Jirí Ruprich also both have links to food industry bodies.
The claims were made by Brussels-based lobby watchdog, Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), who said this constitutes a conflict of interest and demanded an inquiry by EU health and consumer commissioner John Dalli.
However, in a letter to CEO, the director of EFSA, Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle, has hit back at the criticism.
She writes, "EFSA's management board members are appointed by member states.
"This follows consultation of the European parliament on the basis of a short list drawn up by the European commission after an open call for expressions of interest."
She said the procedure is done "in such a way as to secure the highest standards of competence, a wide range of relevant expertise, and consistent with these, the broadest possible geographic distribution within the EU."
She added, "Management board members do not represent any country or sector but are chosen for their expertise.
"EFSA's sole aim is to provide scientific advice to protect consumers from possible risks associated with the food chain. It is therefore quite understandable that individuals appointed to serve on EFSA's board have relevant experience in areas related to EFSA's mission.
"In fact EFSA's founding regulation clearly specifies that four of the members of the board shall have their background in organisations representing the interests of consumers - which is the case if you go through the list of members available on EFSA's website - and other interests in the food chain.
"These criteria were checked and verified by the institutions responsible for the appointment of the members when considering their applications."
She went on, "The role of the board is to ensure an effective and efficient functioning of the authority and it decides on its work programme and priorities.
"The board has no power to review EFSA's scientific outputs nor to influence their adoption procedure, which is the sole responsibility of EFSA's scientific committee and panels.
"To ensure the independence of its work EFSA has implemented a stringent policy on declarations of interests which also applies to EFSA management board members who, although not involved in EFSA's scientific work, provide declaration of interests which are publicly available on EFSA's website.
"The members referred to in the CEO letter have openly declared all their interests in areas relevant to EFSA's work."
EFSA's letter to CEO was also sent Dalli, who has not commented on the matter.
Earlier, CEO had called for a "complete overhaul" of the rules governing EFSA, with its research coordinator Olivier Hoedeman saying, "EFSA's independence cannot be guaranteed if members of its management board are employed by private companies or lobby groups with a vested interest in influencing EU food regulation."
