1.EU Commissioner Dalli: 'I never favoured GMO industry'
2.How Dalli authorized Amflora for contamination
3.EU Commissioner with business interests in Libya speaks up for Gaddafi
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1.EU Commissioner Dalli: 'I never favoured GMO industry'
Jurgen Balzan
Malta Today, 17 January 2012 [shortened]
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/EU-Commissioner-Dalli-I-never-favoured-GMO-industry-20120116
*European health commissioner who lifted 13-year ban on genetically modified potato says he has been "highly critical of the industry".
European Commissioner John Dalli yesterday said he never "favoured the GM industry" when asked by MaltaToday about his stand on genetically modified (GM) crops which had come under attack at the beginning of his tenure.
Addressing a press conference in Valletta on the activities of his health and consumer policy portfolio in 2011, Dalli was asked about the stand he had taken when he walked into a storm by lifting a 13-year ban on the cultivation of the GM potato 'Amflora', opening the EU market to GM cultivation by allowing member states to decide individually on the issue.
His controversial decisions were met with strong resistance by many EU member states and came under a barrage of criticism by the anti-GM lobby, particularly environmental groups.
"I take full responsibility of the dossier on GM crops. I have never favoured the industry, in truth, I have been highly critical of the industry. I have convened regular conferences for scientists, NGOs and the GM industry to discuss the matter. I am also working closely with very critical European MPs such as José Bové," Dalli said.
When Dalli approved the cultivation of GM potato in 2010, the green movement argued that the move will result in an irreversible process of GM contamination of fields. The anti-GM lobby says this would lead to farmers becoming dependent on big-business GMO companies for crops and pesticides.
However, in 2010 Dalli was adamant that the authorisation posed no dangers to the health of European consumers because he claimed that all scientific issues, particularly those concerning safety for human health and the environment had been fully addressed.
Dalli also said he would never give the go ahead to GM crops for the sake of the industry's interests.
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2.Amflora authorized for contamination
Antje
ifrik, 2 March 2010
http://gm.ifrik.org/blog/amflora-authorized-contamination
One of the first things the new EU Commissioner for Health and Consumers, John Dalli, did today was to authorize BASF's GM potato Amflora.
The EU Commissioner has only been in office for a week, and the responsibility for GM crops was moved from DG Environment to DG Health. Yesterday Dalli talked to members of the EU parliament, but he still nevertheless took a fast decision.
There are two different authorizations: one for the cultivation of Amflora, and a second one for feed that – in an unprecedented move to avoid liability for contamination – also allows for food contamination with Amflora of up to 0.9%.
This is something completely different than the 0.9% we currently have that only concerns labelling: If a contamination with an authorized GMOs is less then 0.9% and if this contamination was adventitious and/or technically unavoidable, then the producer does not have to label the product as containing GMOs. Contamination with un-authorized GMOs however is not allowed.
The authorization of Amflora breaks this rule and in principle also opens the door for all kinds of contamination with GMOs that are not authorized as food/feed in the EU.
The application had also included authorization as food/feed, and EFSA had already given a positive opinion on it in 2006. However, in it, the risk assessment for health impacts does not make any difference for the consumption of only small amounts of Amflora. This means that there is no scientific basis for restricting safe consumption to 0.9%.
Jens Karg from Global 2000 describes it quite well: This can only be described as "Kniefall" – surrendering to the biotech industry.
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3.EU commissioner goes off-message on Gaddafi [shortened]
Andrew Rettman
EU Observer, 3 April 2011
http://euobserver.com/843/31923
BRUSSELS – Maltese EU commissioner John Dalli has made comments which appear to support Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi and which flatly contradict those of Mr Dalli's boss, Jose Manuel Barroso.
Speaking to press at an event organised by the Malta Business Bureau on Friday (5 March) morning in Malta, the EU health commissioner, who has a long history of business links with Libya, said he "didn't think [he] had the right, or anyone else, to make a statement on whether he [Gaddafi] should step down."
He added: "I think Gaddafi should make his own decisions. He has the assessment of the people, as he has said on TV ... I think Gaddafi has made the first attempt towards conciliation."
Mr Dalli said he is "in no way" a defender of Gaddafi and condemned the violence in Libya. But he then repeated the Libyan leader's own line that outside forces are manipulating media coverage of protests.
"The US admitted that they have lost the race for information in Libya – this, and the way information is getting out, is problematic," he said. "Sometimes doubt creeps into one's head when seeing people speaking perfect English and hoisted up by a group of people made to look like a crowd. I wonder if they might be shots 'created' for journalists."
Mr Dalli's comments flatly contradict the position taken by Mr Barroso in a speech in Brussels two days ago.
"It is time for him [Gaddafi] to go and give the country back to the people of Libya," Mr Barroso said. "It is our duty to say to the Arab people that we are on their side."
The 62-year-old Mr Dalli has built up close personal links with the Libyan regime over the past two decades.
In 2004 he set up John Dalli & Associates, a consultancy firm which specialised in opening doors for Maltese businessmen in Libya and which had an office in Tripoli. He also worked as a director in the Azizia Glass Manufacturing Company (AGMC), which has a multi-million-euro factory in the north African dictatorship.
He quit AGMC and John Dalli & Associates when he became a Maltese minister in 2008. But he kept John Dalli & Associates in the family by handing the business to his daughters and he still owns a house in Tripoli.
In his own online biography posted in 2008 he spoke about his work for the Libya Maltese Joint Commission in the 1987 to 1996 and 1998 to 2004 periods when Libya was under UN sanctions.
He said that "levels of economic activities between the two countries increased" despite the UN measures. He added that he had "established a strong network at the political and executive levels of that country."
At another business event in Valetta in 2007, he said: "Malta had served as a gateway between Libya and the outside world during the days of international sanctions ... Business with Libya means business in Libya and face-to-face contact is essential."