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Friends of the Earth exposes EU for secret biotech industry bias
Incoming Finnish Presidency and European Commission organise closed doors,
pro-industry biotech meeting
Brussels June 20 - Friends of the Earth has condemned a high-level meeting
on Europe's future biotechnology strategy, that is taking place today behind
closed doors and from which environmental NGOs have been barred entry.[1]
Helen Holder, GMO Campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe said: "Meeting
in secret to discuss issues of high public importance is an absolute
disgrace and a bad sign of what is to come under the Finnish Presidency of
the EU. Once again, big industry has a permanent seat in
biotech strategy discussions whereas environmental groups are barred."
The meeting, taking place in Helsinki today, provides a platform for biotech
industry representatives to engage in discussion with Member States and the
European Commission. The biotech industry will be presented with preliminary
results of a major Commission study and they will be invited to comment,
even though the period for input from stakeholders like environmental and
consumer groups has not even finished yet.[2] Friends of the Earth Europe
has already criticized the study's lack of independence and transparency.[3]
The meeting has been organized by the Finnish and Austrian Governments in
collaboration with the European Commission and is part of a mid-term review
of the EU's biotechnology strategy. Issues such as competitiveness, the
impacts of biotechnology, regulation of biotechnology and public perceptions
of biotechnology, will be discussed.[4]
"The review of the EU's biotech strategy should have been an excellent
opportunity for an open debate on how Europe handles new controversial
technologies such as genetically modified food. Instead it has turned into a
back-slapping exercise for the biotech industry whilst other stakeholders
are kept out. This makes a farce out of the attempts to make this review
transparent and open," Holder added.
Friends of the Earth Europe is calling for:
- all papers presented at today's meeting to be posted on the website of the European Commission immediately
- participation of all stakeholders in the EU biotech strategy mid term review (MTR)
- a timetable of all MTR meetings, agendas and minutes
- a meeting with the Commission's Joint Research Centre for stakeholders excluded from today's meeting, to discuss the preliminary results of the study
Contact:
In Brussels:
Helen Holder, GMO Campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe: +32 25 42 01
82; Mobile: +32 474 857 638; helen.holder@foeeurope.org
Adrian Bebb, GMO Campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe: +49 80 25 99 19
51; Mobile: +49 1609 4901163; adrian.bebb@foeeurope.org
Rosemary Hall, Communications Officer at Friends of the Earth Europe: +32 25
42 61 05; Mobile: +32 485 930515; rosemary.hall@foeeurope.org
In Helsinki:
Ritta Savikko, Chair of Friends of the Earth Finland: +358 4083 43997;
ritta.savikko@maanystavat.fi
Notes:
[1] Friends of the Earth Europe enquired anonymously into free places at the
event and were informed that several spaces were still available. When
attempting to register minutes later in the name of Friends of the Earth
Europe, conference organizers responded that unfortunately the event was
full. A second anonymous query to the hotel venue confirmed that this was
untrue.
When Friends of the Earth went to the conference location this morning they
were refused entry.
[2] "Consequences, opportunities and challenges of modern biotechnology for
Europe", European Commission Directorate General Research, Joint Research
Centre, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies.
http://bio4eu.jrc.es/
[3] Friends of the Earth Europe participated in the first stakeholder
meeting in January 2006 and made a presentation at the second meeting in May
2006. Stakeholders have been given until June 30th to submit written papers
for the study.
[4] Biotech Round Table Discussion, June 20th 2006, Helsinki. Programme at
http://tekes.fi/neobio/
Friends of the Earth Europe campaigns for sustainable and fair societies and for the protection of the environment,
unites more than 30 national organisations with thousands of local groups
and is part of the world's largest grassroots environmental network, Friends of the Earth International.
