Food Safety Omnibus: foodwatch calls on European Parliament to stand up for consumer protection

• Food and Feed Safety Omnibus: first debate at the European Parliament on July 6
• European Parliament rapporteurs shamelessly put private interests over public health. They relied exclusively on contributions from agribusiness stakeholders when drafting their report
• Draft report is unacceptable and should be fully reworked, says foodwatch

Today, the draft report setting the basis for the European Parliament negotiations on its position regarding the Food and Feed Safety Omnibus will be presented in a special meeting between Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from the environment (ENVI) and agriculture (AGRI) committees taking place in Strasburg [1]. foodwatch raises the alarm bell ahead of this first debate and calls on MEPs to reject the dangerous amendments put forward by the rapporteurs.

The document, which leaked ahead of the meeting [2], raises significant concerns for consumer and environment protection and is not an acceptable starting point for the development of the position of the Parliament on such an important file, according to foodwatch. 

As the Parliament’s negotiations begin, the consumer organisation calls on MEPs to fully rework the report to defend public health and the environment.

Natacha Cingotti, lead for campaigns strategies at foodwatch international, commented:

“It is truly appalling and unprecedented to see the Parliament going further than the Commission in weakening essential elements of the European food safety net, such as the periodic reevaluations of harmful pesticides, when it should stand for the protection of consumers. 

Adding insult to injury, the close alignment of the rapporteurs suggests that the European People’s Party is ready to compromise on ethical and democratic principles by working with the far-right in order to push through proposals that will only benefit representatives of the agro-industry.”

Some of the most problematic proposals concern the rules regarding the placing on the market of pesticides, including suggestions for:

• Unlimited approval for most pesticides at EU and national levels. The draft suggests extending the EU Commission proposal for unlimited approvals to a larger group of substances, including the 200 that are currently lined up for renewal assessment and getting rid of product authorisations at national level. Pesticides with known harmful properties such as Glyphosate and Glyphosate-based products could get a permanent pass at EU level and in member states. 
• Longer grace periods for banned substances. Three years in every case: two to keep selling, one more to use up the stocks. 
• Larger grounds for derogations. Socio-economic arguments could now be used to keep dangerous substances on the market. 
• Science undermined. If a member state flags a safety concern based on the latest scientific evidence, this would no longer automatically pause or stop a product's authorisation process. 
• Automatic mutual recognition. Once a pesticide product is approved in one country, it could automatically be approved in others as well.

The draft report is the result of the cooperation between Herbert Dorfmann from the European People’s Party (EPP, rapporteur for the AGRI committee) and Michele Picaro from the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR, rapporteur for the ENVI committee) both from Italy. The annex of the report reveals that only inputs from players from the agroindustry were considered by the rapporteurs in their preparatory work. 

The proposed additions severely weaken rules that govern the placing of pesticides on the market. It is also puzzling that the rapporteurs have not thoroughly considered all the legal pieces covered by the Omnibus package. For instance, the report is completely silent regarding the Commission’s plans in areas such as the monitoring of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cow disease), or minimalistic about food controls, or the rules governing feed additives - which all raise concerns for consumer protection [3]. 

For foodwatch, the Parliament’s position cannot be so selective in addressing the areas covered by the Omnibus package. The extraordinary mobilisation of more than 107,000 citizens from across Europe (and the numbers keep growing) against the European Commission proposal should provide further impetus to MEPs to use their scrutiny power to defend essential consumer and environmental safeguards [4]. 

Finally, MEPs should also challenge the Commission about the lack of impact assessment and minimal consultations in the preparation phase of the Omnibus, which are breaching its own guidelines on better regulation and good administration. foodwatch has filed a complaint about those procedural shortcomings at the European Ombudsman [5].

[1] European Parliament, Joint ENVI-AGRI meeting, 6th July, 

Agenda available here: https://emeeting.europarl.europa.eu/emeeting/committee/en/agenda/202607/ENVI 

Streaming starting at 20:30 here on July 6: https://multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/webstreaming/committee-on-environment-climate-and-food-safety-extraordinary-meeting-committee-on-agriculture-and_20260706-2030-COMMITTEE-ENVI 

[2] The draft report and annex about third-parties' inputs received can be found here: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/CJ14-PR-789112_EN.html 

[3] More information about foodwatch’s concerns regarding the Omnibus package: https://www.foodwatch.org/en/omnibus-on-food-safety-checks-for-pesticides-under-attack & https://www.foodwatch.org/en/pesticides-gmos-bse-eu-omnibus-law-endangers-consumers 

[4] foodwatch’s email action ‘Stand for food safety: stop the omnibus’: https://www.foodwatch.org/en/stand-for-food-safety-stop-the-omnibus 

[5] In June, foodwatch filed a complaint to EU Ombudswoman over Commission’s handling of Food and Feed Safety Omnibus: https://www.foodwatch.org/en/foodwatch-files-complaint-to-eu-ombudswoman-over-commissions-handling-of-food-and-feed-safety-omnibus