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2021
Major victory for CRIIGEN against Monsanto/Bayer and ANSES! Roundup Pro 360 is banned!
In a ruling handed down on June 29, 2021, and following an appeal lodged by CRIIGEN, represented by Maître Corinne Lepage, the Lyon Administrative Court of Appeal confirms the cancellation of the marketing authorization for Roundup Pro 360 already pronounced in the first instance by the Lyon Administrative Court on January 15, 2019.
The Court applied the precautionary principle enshrined in article five of the French Charter for the Environment, considering that this principle had been doubly disregarded by the Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire (ANSES ), responsible for issuing marketing authorizations after assessing the toxicity of products.
Roundup Pro 360 is in fact a resale product, i.e. a product that has already been authorized under another name. The Court considers that when this authorization was granted in March 2010, all the scientific evidence already available was such as to support the hypothesis of a risk of harm to the environment linked to the use of glyphosate, but also to the combination of glyphosate with other co-formulants in commercial preparations, and that this risk was likely to cause serious harm to human health and the environment.
This ruling is essential insofar as, beyond this Roundup, it calls into question ANSES's assessment of the precautionary principle in issuing marketing authorizations for glyphosate-based products in general.
According to the President of CRIIGEN, Dr Joël Spiroux de Vendômois, " This major decision should therefore lead to the withdrawal of all resale product authorizations not preceded by a specific assessment, and more generally of all glyphosate-based products, given the numerous scientific data showing the health and environmental impacts of these herbicides ".
CRIIGEN is putting its trans-disciplinary expertise to work on a proposal for in-depth reform of regulatory toxicology and environmental safety...
CRIIGEN has published a transdisciplinary study in an international peer-reviewed journal, taking stock of the shortcomings of regulatory expertise, and formulating a series of concrete proposals to overcome them. These proposals concern both the organization of assessment and the assessment processes and protocols themselves.
Trans-disciplinary diagnosis for an in-depth reform of regulatory expertise in the field of environmental toxicology and security. Joël Spiroux de Vendômois, Jean-Paul Bourdineaud, Arnaud Apoteker, Nicolas Defarge, Emilie Gaillard, Corinne Lepage, Jacques Testart , Christian Vélot. Review Toxicol Res. 2021. Doi: 10.1007/s43188-020-00075-w.
" Transdisciplinary diagnosis for an in-depth reform of regulatory expertise in the field of environmental toxicology and safety ".
Repeated health and environmental scandals, the loss of biodiversity and the recent explosion in chronic diseases are constant reminders of the inability of public authorities and risk assessment agencies to protect health and the environment...
After reviewing the main shortcomings of our assessment system for chemicals and new technologies, backed up by a few concrete examples, we draw up a number of proposals aimed at reforming both risk assessment agencies and assessment processes. In particular, we propose the creation of an independent structure, a High Authority for Expertise, to supervise all assessment agencies, either at European or national level, and to guarantee the transparency, methodology and ethics of expertise. In addition to modifying the nature and content of assessment protocols, in particular to adapt them to current pollutants such as endocrine disruptors, we propose a reform of expert assessment processes based on transparency, contradiction and greater democracy, including close collaboration between institutional and scientific players on the one hand, and civil society as a whole on the other. All our proposals are inspired by the desire to prevent, through appropriate mechanisms, the human, health, ecological and economic consequences of contemporary technological choices.
2019
January 15, 2019: The Lyon Administrative Court has ruled in favor of the CRIIGEN association, represented by Maître Corinne Lepage, of the Huglo Lepage law firm, and also President of Justice Pesticides, in the appeal lodged on April 27, 2017 against the ANSES (Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire, de l'alimentation, de l'environnement et du travail) authorization of the glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup Pro 360 (AffaireN°1704067, https://www.justicepesticides.org/juridic_case/criigen-contre-anses-2/).
In its order of January 15, the 6th Chamber of the Lyon Administrative Court annulled the decision of March 6, 2017 by which the Director General of ANSES authorized the marketing of Roundup Pro 360.
The court recognized that Roundup is probably carcinogenic and that the decision to authorize the marketing of Roundup Pro 360 did not respect the precautionary principle and represented a manifest error of assessment on the part of the agency. He considers that there is not even a need to refer the matter to the Court of Justice of the European Union in order for CRIIGEN to be entitled to request the annulment of the marketing authorization.
Joël Spiroux de Vendômois, President of CRIIGEN, comments: "This is a great victory for public health and for CRIIGEN. This decision represents a real repudiation of ANSES, which should have only one objective: the protection of the population".
2019
"Hidden GMOs: the government takes us for guinea pigs for agrochemical companies / an article signed by CRIIGEN
The NGO authors of this article deplore the " inertia of the public authorities ", who have allowed the cultivation of "hidden GMOs" to continue in France. Yet these "pesticide sponges" endanger consumers and farmers alike. One year ago, on July 25, 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) handed down a landmark ruling on plant biotechnology.
It answered several questions put by the Conseil d'État, following a legal challenge by nine French farmers' and civil society organizations [1]. Their aim was to obtain a moratorium on the sale and cultivation of varieties made tolerant to herbicides (VrTH).
European Court of Justice ruling helps combat "hidden GMOs
For more information: https: //reporterre.net/OGM-caches-le-gouvernement-nous-prend-pour-les-cobayes-des-firmes-agrochimiques
2016
Hearing of September 19, 2016 at the Conseil d'Etat on hidden GMOs
In March 2015, nine civil society organizations united within the Collectif de l'Appel de Poitiers (http://www.appeldepoitiers.org/) filed an appeal with the Conseil d'Etat (CE) to demand the annulment of the decree excluding genetically modified plants derived from mutagenesis from GMO regulations ("hidden GMOs").
The EC then launched an inquiry procedure, with a (very exceptional) hearing held last June, in which Criigen played a full part : the Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board, Christian Vélot (Dr. in molecular biology at Paris-Sud University), was one of two experts heard by the EC on behalf of the collective behind the appeal, and its Chairman, Dr. Joël Spiroux de Vendômois (physician, specialist in environmental health issues) gave written testimony on the health aspects, again at the request of the collective.
At the CE hearing on September 19, the risk was recognized by the public rapporteur, who called for a referral to the European Court of Justice to rule on the conformity of the European directive on agricultural GMOs with the precautionary principle, in view of the mutagenesis genetic modification techniques that lead to plants that escape all regulation.