Dear Health Commissioner Ms. Kyriakides,
We were unpleasantly surprised to learn about another secret meeting of Commission and national authorities with industry on zonal pesticide issues. Your services invited pesticide industry as the only stakeholder to the meeting. We refer to the 5-7 December 2023 workshop meeting in Braunschweig called ‘Zonal Authorisation Procedure Improvements and Developments’ (ZAPID), organised by the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety of Germany. It is already the second time pesticide industry, after Dublin 2016, is offered this unique opportunity to agree with policy officers of Commission and member states in the workshop on zonal pesticide policy and further decreasing the protection of EU citizens and their environment. Pesticide industry gets direct access to decision-makers at diners, coffee breaks and even a Christmas market event and create personal bonds. An opportunity that those organisations representing the public is withheld. You send the invitations to industry and you know very well it is unacceptable to design policy and derogations exclusively with industry, excluding all other stakeholders. Moreover it is illegal. The legal obligation to make an “independent, objective and transparent assessment assessment”, as laid down in regulation (CE) 1107/2009 is gravely violated
