Archives: Press Releases

International Civil Society Sends Letter to Governments Opposing Proposed “Trade in Services Agreement” as Negotiators Convene in Geneva

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Food

Today, as governments meet in Geneva to negotiate a proposed Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), 341 organizations representing hundreds of millions of people from nearly every developing and developed country, called on governments to abandon the talks. Among the endorsers were 42 major international and regional networks, such as Public Services International (PSI), UNI Global Union, the European Federation of Public Services Unions (EPSU), the IndustriALL Global Union, the International Union of Food and Allied Workers (IUF), and the ATTAC European network, along with Food & Water Europe. The letter was organized by the OWINFS network.

The letter states, “[t]he TISA negotiations largely follow the corporate agenda of using “trade” agreements to bind countries to an agenda of extreme liberalization and deregulation in order to ensure greater corporate profits at the expense of workers, farmers, consumers and the environment. The proposed agreement is the direct result of systematic advocacy by transnational corporations in banking, energy, insurance, telecommunications, transportation, water, and other services sectors, working through lobby groups like the US Coalition of Service Industries (USCSI) and the European Services Forum (ESF).

“Notwithstanding several financial, economic, social and environmental crises, the services rules proposed for the TISA replicate and greatly expand upon the same rules that ‘discipline’ government measures and limit policy space for regulation, enshrined in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and free trade agreements (FTAs), which contributed to those crises.”

“Strong regulation of and oversight over both public and private services is crucial for democracy, the public interest and development, as well as for the orderly functioning of the services market. We fear that all of these values and goals would be seriously undermined by this proposed TISA,” stated signatories.

PSI General Secretary Rosa Pavanelli says, “We call on our affiliates to urge their national governments to withdraw from talks on this proposed TISA and to mobilize workers and communities against this deal which is an assault on the public interest. We believe this deal is about transferring public services into the hands of private and foreign corporations motivated only by profit. This will undermine people’s rights and affordable access to vital public services such as healthcare, water and sanitation, energy, education, social services and pensions, and exploit common goods and natural resources.”

The letter also called on governments that are not participating in the TISA negotiations “to register your strong opposition to the negotiations and to pledge never to join any potential future TISA.” This is because the TISA is “an attempt to advance developed countries’ corporate wish lists for services while abandoning commitments made in the WTO’s Doha Development Agenda to address developing country concerns, such as fixing existing asymmetries and unfair rules on agriculture.”  Major international signatories with the majority of members in non-participating countries include the ACP Civil Society Forum, LDC Watch, the Africa Trade Network, the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND), Plataforma Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, Democracia y Desarrollo (PIDHDD), and the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG).

Contact: 

Gabriella Zanzanaini, gzanzanaini(at)fweurope.org, +32 488 409 662

Eve Mitchell, [email protected], +44 (0)1381 610 740

OWINFS is a global network of NGOs and social movements working for a sustainable, socially just, and democratic multilateral trading system. www.ourworldisnotforsale.org

Civil Society Groups and MEPs call on Companies to Drop Bid for Public Water Company in Greece

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Food

Brussels – Over 130 civil society organisations, trade unions and individuals from Greece, Europe and around the world have teamed up with 50 members of the European Parliament to send a letter to the bidders of the public water company in Thessaloniki urging them to drop their bid.

The group has sent letters to companies including the French multinational Suez Environnement, Greek groups Aktor S.A and Terna Energy S.A as well as the Israeli groups Mekorot and Arison Investment concerning their reported bids for EYATH, the Thessaloniki Water and Sewage Company.

Under conditions imposed by the Troika to reduce Greece’s debt, EYATH has been put up for sale by the Greek government against the peoples’ wish. The citizens of the city, the workers as well as the municipalities of Thessaloniki oppose the sale of their public water and have set up different campaigns to stop this privatization.

“While in Greece there is no precedent, the international experience has shown that the privatisation of water has often resulted in the skyrocketing of prices and in some cases in the deterioration of water quality. Although the trend in Europe is towards remunicipalization of our water systems, we are being forced to go the opposite way here,” says Maria Kanellopoulou of initiative Save Greek Water. “EYATH is the first case of water privatization that we need to stop to make sure it does not spread to the rest of Greece,” she added.

“Companies involved in water privatization have often found their reputations tarnished, their risks increased and their profits limited. The companies aiming to buy EYATH would be clearly basing their business model on opportunism and should take this as a warning sign of the difficulties to come,” said George Archontopoulos from the EYATH Workers Union.

“Last week the Eldorado Gold Corporation announced the suspension of production at the Halkidiki goldmine in Greece. This is another example of a company which is not wanted in Greece and which the people are prepared to fight against to stop the exploitation of one of their common resources. The residents have managed to stall the mine’s activities by a durable and dynamic resistance. This is the same situation we see for the protection of public water and EYATH in Thessaloniki,” said Gabriella Zanzanaini, Director of European Affairs for Food & Water Europe.

“50 MEPs from the Conservatives, the Popular Party, the Liberals, the Greens, the Socialists and the Left from 18 countries cosigned the letter. This massive participation shows that international and local opposition to the sale of water services will pose a toll over any company that takes part in these privatizations. Companies should make a profit from the trade of private goods, not from acquiring market control over public goods. The European Parliament is sending a clear warning to the Greek government that the privatization of water is neither welcomed nor helping Greece to exit the crisis,” said Kriton Arsenis, Greek MEP, who helped to circulate the letter in the European Parliament.

The groups support keeping the profitable water company in public ownership, where real participation of citizens and workers in the management of water can happen. Considering the current European context where over 1, 600 000 citizens have signed the European Citizens Initiative to protect the right to water and the European Commission’s recent removal of water services from the controversial Concessions Directive, these companies would be going against the tide if they push forward on their bid for EYATH.

Contact:

Maria Kanellopoulou, savegreekwater(at)gmail.com, +30 694 425 9916

Pablo Sanchez, psanchez(at)epsu.org, +32 474 626 633

Gabriella Zanzanaini, gzanzanaini(at)fweurope.org, +32 488 409 662

Kriton Arsenis, kriton.arsenis(at)europarl.europa.eu, +30 210 324 8222

Food & Water Europe Congratulates MEPS on Endorsing Mandatory Environmental Impact Assessment for Shale Gas Drilling

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Food

Brussels – Today, members of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee overwhelmingly (51 in favour, 18 against) endorsed a proposal to impose a mandatory Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for all shale gas drilling activities in the European Union. This is in line with the Parliament’s resolution on the environmental; impacts of shale gas, voted in November 2012, which called on the European Commission to include “projects including hydraulic fracturing in Annex I of the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive”.* For Food & Water Europe, this is a major victory, as MEPs showed a health dose of suspicion about the empty promises of the shale gas industry about its ability to guarantee so-called ‘safe fracking’. Imposing a mandatory EIA for shale gas drilling is the start of adapting the EU regulatory framework to the ugly reality of unconventional hydrocarbons in the EU. This vote demonstrates a resolve among MEPs to avoid the negative impacts of an out-of-control boom in shale gas drilling in the United States. A mandatory EIA will provide local people and authorities with the necessary baseline data in areas with drilling, increase the preparedness among environmental agencies and local authorities and offer local communities an opportunity to be consulted early on in the process. MEPs saw through the smokescreen of the numerous events to promote ‘sustainable fracking’ in Brussels, organised by the fossil fuel industry and its allies,

“This vote to impose a mandatory EIA for all shale gas drilling was a litmus test for the resolve among MEPs to demand an adequate risk-management framework for shale gas activities in Europe,” said Food & Water Europe policy officer Geert De Cock. “The majority in favour of this proposal should be a boost of confidence for Environment Commissioner Potocnick to bring forward stringent proposals for this risky industry”.

The European Commission is scheduled to publish its proposals for a risk-management framework for unconventional hydrocarbon activities by the end of 2013, covering the wide range of risks associated with the practice of fracking. With today’s vote, MEPs clearly signalled to the Commission that stringent rules on chemicals use, well integrity, waste management, air and methane emissions and liability will find strong support in the European Parliament. 

* European Parliament (2012, November) EP resolution of 21 November 2012 on the environmental impacts of shale gas and shale oil extraction activities (2011/2308(INI).

Contact: Geert Decock tel. +32 (0)2 893 10 45, mobile +32 (0)484 629.491, gdecock(at)fweurope.org 

EU Must Draw a Line Under GMOs as Superweeds, Herbicide Use Soar

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Food

Brussels — On the eve of a key meeting of EU Member State representatives, Food & Water Europe today called on EU Member States to reject the application to authorise imports of a new so-called “stacked” GM maize. Citing its new report, Superweeds: How Biotech Crops Bolster the Pesticide Industry, the organisation says it is time to admit that the GM technology cannot deliver on its promises and instead has caused escalating problems the EU can no longer ignore.

“For nearly 20 years, herbicide-tolerant GM crops have been marketed as a way to improve yields, lower costs for farmers and reduce agriculture’s environmental impact. Not only have these claims not held up, they’ve backfired,” said Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Europe. “The chemical arms race that industrial agriculture is waging against weeds in the U.S. is not working and is doing incalculable harm to our environment and human health.”

SmartStax maize, a joint Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences product, is an attempt by industry to address the rapid spread of glyphosate-resistant superweeds and insects as a result of existing GM cultivation – genetically modified to produce six internal insecticides and tolerant to both glyphosate and glufosinate. By combining multiple resistance genes into the crop the companies behind it hope it will slow the spread of superweeds, but Food & Water Europe points out that it is precisely these combinations that are the problem. The safety of the GM genes has been assessed individually, but the effects on people, livestock and the environment are unknown. They are also likely to make on-farm problems worse, not better, including leading to the use of far more dangerous chemicals like 2-4,D when new resistance inevitably emerges.

Despite being genetically modified with the sole purpose of helping farmers fight weeds, glyphosate-tolerant GM crops, primarily Monsanto’s Roundup Ready maize, have spurred a crisis of weed management for farmers. The Food & Water Europe report released today analyses U.S. Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency data to show the connection between the rapid proliferation of GM crops and affiliated pesticides in the United States and the rise of herbicide-resistant “superweeds” that have led to the steadily increasing use of more dangerous herbicides. The widely-used glyphosate herbicides have become ineffective as the weeds develop stronger resistance due to continuous over-exposure to the chemical. As glyphosate proves to be increasingly ineffective, more farmers are turning to more dangerous herbicides, and the biotech industry is keen to provide new products it claims will help ease the crisis.

Food & Water Europe EU Food Policy Advisor Eve Mitchell said, “European politicians and regulators need to heed the warning that GM crops are an escalation of weed management problems, not a solution, and to reject all applications for Roundup Ready or other herbicide tolerant GM crops for import or cultivation, starting with SmartStax maize. We should not grow them in the EU because they cause harm and set back sustainable farming. We should not import them because these problems are now sufficiently serious that is it no longer acceptable to turn a blind eye by encouraging this GM production elsewhere. Europe cannot claim to foster sustainable farming or sustainable development if it is exporting the damage caused by its choices to other countries and expecting those communities to pay the price.

“Rather than extending GM use, which we know consumers reject, we want clear labels on food products showing where GM is and isn’t used as ingredients or feed. Continuing to sell meat and eggs using hidden GM feed while adding more dangerous, untested combinations to the chain is simply unacceptable. The market can’t function properly if shoppers don’t know what they are buying.”

The report also examines the costs associated with GM crops and herbicide-resistant weeds, including reduced yields, increased effort to combat weed infestations and resulting increase in pesticide exposure and chemical residues that harm public health, the environment, wildlife and water quality.

The “Superweeds” Report is available here: http://documents.foodandwaterwatch.org/doc/superweeds_eu_version.pdf

And an accompanying video based on the report can be found here: http://fwwat.ch/superweedvideo

Contact: Eve Mitchell, +44 (0)1381 610 740 or [email protected]

Food & Water Europe Launches NGSFacts.com to Tackle Corporate Spin about Fracking

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Food

For immediate release

Brussels – Today, Food & Water Europe launched a new website, NGSFacts.com, to challenge the fossil fuel industry’s spin on NGSFacts.org that shale gas can be safely extracted. NGSFacts.com will redirect visitors to the Food & Water Europe website to offer a fact-based assessment of the environmental and health impacts of large-scale hydraulic fracturing. Food & Water Europe takes issue with industry’s denial of strong links between shale gas extraction and water contamination in the United States. In addition, self-regulation and voluntary disclosure mechanisms for chemicals used in fracking fluids are insufficient to monitor a high-risk activity such as hydraulic fracturing in a densely populated continent like Europe. Food & Water Europe works in Brussels on a campaign to ban fracking.

“The oil and gas industry has no credibility to dismiss the negative impacts of shale gas given its poor record on environmental issues and transparency,” said Food & Water Europe policy officer Geert De Cock. “This is why we decided to launch NGSFacts.com. It is our role as NGOs to offer unbiased information to European citizens about the negative implications of large-scale shale gas extraction”.

Peer-reviewed scientific evidence, industry publications and hundreds of cases all point to the same conclusions: The oil and gas industry continues to struggle with securing the integrity of its wells. As a result of poor cementing practices and casing failures, toxic fracking fluids and methane have migrated to nearby aquifers and will continue to do so.

With regard to the chemicals used in fracking, shale gas operators launched FrackFocus, a voluntary chemicals disclosure registry, in response to public concerns in the United States. However, FrackFocus continues to allow trade-secret exemptions to conceal the exact composition of the chemical mixtures used and impedes easy analysis of the information provided (e.g. bulk download of data is not possible).

“Europeans need a better understanding of the risks involved in hydraulic fracturing and public authorities have a key role to play in guaranteeing high environmental and public health standards,” said De Cock. “Voluntary measures such as NGSFacts.org and self-regulation will not be sufficient for monitoring the beginning of this high risk industrial activity in Europe.”

Statement by Food and Water Europe at Roundtable on Shale Gas (PDF).

Website: http://www.ngsfacts.com/

Food & Water Europe web page on fracking: http://www.foodandwatereurope.org/europe/fracking/

Contact: Geert De Cock tel. +32 (0)2 893 10 45, mobile +32 (0)484 629.491, gdecock(at)fweurope.org 

Science Stacks Up Against GM Salmon

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Food

Brussels – The news released yesterday that GM salmon can pass on their modified DNA to brown trout is yet another blow to arguments in favour of commercialising the transgenic fish for food. Food & Water Europe today demanded that European regulators use these scientific revelations to protect EU habitats and consumers by urging the FDA to reject the application to commercialise GM salmon.

The authors of the paper from the Memorial University of Newfoundland, published by the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, shows that GM salmon would have “substantial ecological consequences for wild Atlantic salmon should they ever come into contact with nature.”

When GM salmon were crossed with brown trout, roughly 40 percent of the offspring acquired the GM genes. These GM offspring grow more quickly than wild salmon, trout or salmon-trout hybrids in a commercial laboratory setting.

Food & Water Europe Food Policy Advisor Eve Mitchell said, “European regulators keep saying they base their decisions on GMOs on science. The scientists are explicitly telling them they need to look at this problem. Given the huge threats to European wildlife, habitats and industries, not to mention the complete lack of demand for GM fish as food, the very least the European regulators can do is protest most strongly to the FDA not to approve the GM salmon.”

The FDA is in the final throes of deciding on the application by biotech company AquaBounty for authorisation to sell the fish as food. Dogged by controversy, including evasion of full environmental impacts assessment by placing egg production and growing facilities outside the U.S., the company dismisses the problem by claiming the hybrid offspring are sterile and that in any case the GM fish will be kept in contained facilities. Yet the ability to reproduce successfully is far from the only problem, and the chequered history of fish farm escapes shows how error or accident are the real risks.

Ms. Mitchell said, “It’s accidents we are worried about, and they simply can’t be ruled out. This research begins to hint at the wide-ranging problems such accidents will bring. AquaBounty attempts to argue that the GM hybrid offspring pose no problem because they are sterile, but this does not solve the problem if those GM fish outcompete natural fish for food, nest sites, mates and so on. This could have devastating impacts on natural wild fish.”

On 23 May the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published guidance on performing risk assessment of GM animals, including fish, insects, birds, pets and farm animals. Campaigners say the move is both premature and against the wishes of European consumers, who roundly reject GM animals for food. GeneWatch UK expressed disappointment these guidelines were issued before the European Ombudsman had a chance to rule on the organisation’s complaint about EFSA’s failure to consult on GM insects in the food chain and about conflicts-of-interest on EFSA’s GM insects working group. Nevertheless the regulatory guidance is now in place for an application to be made to authorise the GM fish as food in the EU should the FDA give commercialisation the nod.

Ms. Mitchell added, “The FDA has done extremely poor scientific work assessing the environmental impacts of GM salmon since the beginning, and this new, independent research highlights yet again the agency’s failure to protect the public and the environment. There is a clear need to protect European wild salmon and trout, the angling and fishing industries for both, the ancillary businesses associated with those industries and tourism, and the natural environment upon which other animals rely.”

For more information:

Eve Mitchell: +44(0)1381 610 740  [email protected]