We, European Associations representing a wide number of economic sectors affected directly or indirectly by comitology rules, re-iterate¹ the request for timely, reliable authorisations of safe products, based on the best available science from the EU’s own risk assessment agencies. Such decisions are central for innovation, continued investments, jobs and growth, as well as consumer confidence and safety in the EU. Innovation, in turn, is critical to achieving the goals of the European Green Deal² and the EU’s industrial strategy³.

We regret that the changes to the comitology system proposed by the Commission⁴ would not help on any of the above goals, nor are they likely to promote social acceptance of innovation. Instead, the proposed changes would make the processes for product authorisations even more complex and less predictable.

The Plenary of the European Parliament is expected to vote on 16 December 2020 on an amended version of the Commission’s proposal⁵ which would revert the logic from currently ‘approve when safe’ to ‘approve only when popular’. Concretely, amendments 5, 7, and 16 would enable a minority of Member States to block authorisations of products, even if their safety is confirmed by the risk assessment agencies. This would make authorisations of certain products de facto impossible and would undermine science-based decision-making processes.

Therefore, we disagree with the proposed comitology reform and urge decision-makers in particular to reject the legal affairs committee’s amendments 5, 7 and 16.

Signatories:
AESGP, AMFEP, AnimalhealthEurope, COCERAL, Copa Cogeca, ECPA, EFFA, EFPIA, EUROSEEDS, EUROPABIO, FEDIOL, FEFAC, FEFANA, UECBV.

References: 

1: See also Joint Statement of February 2017
2: Communication from the EU Commission: The European Green Deal, COM/2019/640 final 
3: Communication from the EU Commission: A New Industrial Strategy for Europe COM/2020/102 final
4: Proposal for a Regulation amending Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 laying down the rules and general principles concerning mechanisms for control by Member States of the Commission’s exercise of implementing powers. COM (2017) 85 final, 14 February 2017.
5: Report adopted by the Committee for Legal Affairs, A9-0187/2020, 12 October 2020