{"id":99524,"date":"2017-10-02T12:00:06","date_gmt":"2017-10-02T11:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=99524"},"modified":"2017-10-09T09:14:23","modified_gmt":"2017-10-09T08:14:23","slug":"monsanto-banned-from-european-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/10\/monsanto-banned-from-european-parliament\/","title":{"rendered":"Monsanto Banned from European Parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"

MEPs withdraw parliamentary access after the firm shunned a hearing into allegations that it unduly influenced studies into the safety of glyphosate used in its RoundUp weedkiller.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

People protest against a planned $66bn takeover of Monsanto by Bayer and Monsanto\u2019s glyphosate herbicides, in Brussels, July 2017.
Photograph: Yves Herman\/Reuters<\/p><\/div>\n

28 Sep 2017 – <\/em>Monsanto<\/a> lobbyists have been banned from entering the European parliament after the multinational refused to attend a parliamentary hearing into allegations of regulatory interference.<\/p>\n

It is the first time MEPs have used new rules<\/a> to withdraw parliamentary access for firms that ignore a summons to attend parliamentary inquiries or hearings.<\/p>\n

Monsanto officials will now be unable to meet MEPs, attend committee meetings or use digital resources on parliament premises in Brussels or Strasbourg.<\/p>\n

While a formal process still needs to be worked through, a spokesman for the parliament\u2019s president Antonio Tajani said that the leaders of all major parliamentary blocks had backed the ban in a vote this morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne has to assume it is effective immediately,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

MEPs had been incensed at a Monsanto decision to shun a hearing organised by the environment and agriculture committees, with academics, regulators and campaigners, on 11 October.<\/p>\n

The meeting is expected to hear allegations that Monsanto unduly influenced regulatory studies<\/a> into the safety of glyphosate, a key ingredient in its best-selling RoundUp weedkiller.<\/p>\n

EU report on weedkiller safety copied text from Monsanto study<\/a> <\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThose who ignore the rules of democracy also lose their rights as a lobbyist in the European parliament,\u201d said the Green party president Philippe Lamberts. \u201cUS corporations must also accept the democratic control function of the parliament. Monsanto cannot escape this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lobby ban will be a bitter blow to Monsanto\u2019s advocacy campaign ahead of a decision later this year about the relicensing of glyphosate, which has been linked to cancer by one expert WHO panel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Another deemed it safe for public use<\/a>, but Monsanto\u2019s outreach to regulatory agencies in the US<\/a> and Europe<\/a> sparked controversy and prompted the parliamentary hearing.<\/p>\n

A Monsanto letter to MEPs seen by the Guardian said that the European parliament was not \u201can appropriate forum\u201d for discussion on the issues involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe joint hearing could be viewed as the latest attempt by those opposed to modern agricultural practices to influence and frustrate the EU scientific and regulatory process to suit their own agenda,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have observed with increasing alarm the politicisation of the EU procedure on the renewal of glyphosate,\u201d wrote Monsanto\u2019s vice president Philip Miller, \u201ca procedure which should be scientific but which in many respects has been hijacked by populism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin Pigeon, a spokesman for the NGO Corporate Europe<\/a> Observatory, said it was \u201cextremely important that parliament has been prepared to meet Monsanto\u2019s unbelievable arrogance with real retaliation and consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monsanto spends between \u20ac300,000-\u20ac400,000 (\u00a3260,000 – \u00a3350,000) annually on lobbying in Brussels, according to its <\/a>self-declaration form in the EU transparency register<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

28 Sep 2017 – MEPs withdraw parliamentary access after the firm shunned a hearing into allegations that it unduly influenced studies into the safety of glyphosate used in its RoundUp weedkiller.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,51,140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-europe","category-organic-gmo-genetic-engineering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99524\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}