The European Parliament has banned Monsanto lobbyists. The ban was put into effect in reaction to Monsanto’s refusal to comply with official calls from the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to appear at an Oct. 11 hearing addressing allegations of regulatory influence. This is the first time the parliament has withdrawn a corporation’s parliamentary access in line with its new rules relating to parliamentary hearings.
Monsanto was asked to appear regarding mounting evidence of its efforts to influence studies and media relating the safety of glyphosate, the key ingredient in its highly-profitable weed-killer Roundup®, including direct ghost-writing practices. Much of the evidence of this misconduct was uncovered by The Miller Firm during pretrial discovery in the consolidated litigation against Monsanto. The Miller Firm is co-lead counsel in this litigation on behalf of victims who developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after exposure to glyphosate in the United States.
After refusing to participate in the hearing, Monsanto officials are now blocked from attending related committee meetings, meeting with MEPs and utilizing parliament’s digital resources at the Brussels or Strasbourg premises. According to Monsanto’s self-declaration form in the European Union (EU) transparency register, it currently spends about $342,000 to $460,000 on lobbying the European Parliament annually.
The EU is currently deciding whether or not to renew the reauthorization of products containing glyphosate. In 2015, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded that glyphosate is a probable human carcinogen.
While the European Food Safety Authority supports the continued use of glyphosate, The Guardian reported in Sept. 2017 that dozens of pages of its assessment were copied and pasted from Monsanto’s own analysis of glyphosate. “They quoted long bits and pieces. You would be committing fraud if you did this for your Ph.D.” said Sven Giegold, a German Green Party member of the European Parliament who opposes glyphosate’s potential reauthorization. France and Italy have expressed an intention to oppose the reauthorization. In June 2017, a petition demanding the EU ban glyphosate was signed by more than 1 million people.
Terri McCall, a plaintiff in the U.S. lawsuit against Monsanto, met 
with EU MEPs to share her story, The New York Times reports. Her husband, Jack, died from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after years of exposure to Roundup®. “Our planet is being poisoned by Monsanto. At the very least it needs to have a warning label so people can make an informed decision. My husband was under the impression that it was safe,” she expressed.
The Miller Firm is presently accepting clients who developed non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma after exposure to Roundup®. If this has happened to you, please visit our Roundup Lawsuit Page to request a free consultation. You are also invited to call the Miller Firm at 1-800-882-2525.
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Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/28/monsanto-banned-from-european-parliament
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/04/business/monsanto-roundup-europe.html
http://ec.europa.eu/transparencyregister/public/consultation/displaylobbyist.do?id=678841411135-35