EFSA (en.) (Stoppt Gennahrungsmittel)

Aktion Genklage

EFSA

17. March 2010

Ladies and Gentleman!

Thank you for your interest in our efforts of comprehensive litigation against the employment of GMOs in Europe. To give you a little insight in our activities I briefly outline our network, our mission and our current litigation projects.

We are a european network comprising NGOs, farmers associations, retailers and retail associoations dealing in organic food, lawyers, legal and scientific academics, professors, scientists, journalists, film directors, church groups and well known international personalities like William Engdahl etc. We are supported for instance by Greenpeace, Arbeitsgemeinschaft bäuerliche Landwirtschaft AbL (a federal association or small farmers), the European beekeepers association, Genet, GLOBAL 2000, German Society of Doctors for the Environment, Friends of the Earth Germany etc. You find a complete list of our supporters in attachment 1.

We are working on several levels in Europe to use legal strategies for securing a GMO free Europe. Our legal adviser Dr. Christoph Palme, is an outstanding expert in GMO law and has written a host of books, commentaries and publications in leading environmental law journals. In 2008 and 2009 Dr. Palme was consultant to the government of Upper Austria and achieved a landmark success in devising a legal strategy which currently enables this region to stay GMO free.

In the following our acitivities since 2007 are highlighted:

2007 First success in courts ever in Germany to enforce a ban of the use
of GMOs in nature reserves

2007 – 2009: Lawsuits against the german government and public relations efforts ultimately
                      led to the ban of MON 810 in Germany
2008            : Devising of a legal expertise which shows instruments regions, districts and
                      municipalities in Germany can use to roll back the cultivation of GMOs as
                      far as possible

2008 – 2010: Lawsuit against the GMO-TNC Pioneer based on the infringement of
property rights of adjacent beekeepers and on conflict of interest of the
officials in the german GMO supervisory authority

2009            : Completion of a comprehensive legal opinion with legal arguments against
                      EFSA which will be used in court proceedings before the European
                    Court of Justice once the EC Commission issues the renewal of the market
                    authorisation of MON 810 (expected 2010/2011).

2010          : Initiating of Court Proceedings before the European Court of Justice against
                   “Amflora?, a genetically engineered starch potato developed by the german TNC
                    BASF. See attachment 2 (press release Amflora). The whole material legal
                    argumentation against Amflora was devised by Dr. Palme (see attachments 3 -
                    Amflora Request and 4 – Memo State Action ). As this europeanwide is the only
                    lawsuit capable to stop Amflora the parliamentary groups of both the Greens and the
                    Lefts in the german Bundestag presented our project in the media as their cause. But as
                    those groups decline to fund us, the progress of this court action is in peril.

We would be very glad if you could contribute our project by putting your name on the signature list or by donating.

with best regards

Christiane Lüst

Berengariastr. 5, 82131 Gauting , Germany

Tel.: 0049 89 / 893 11 054

Fax: 0049 89 / 893 98 446

Mail: christiane.luest@t-online.de

Kto-Nr.: 170 237 63

BLZ: 702 501 50 Kreissparkasse München Starnberg

use: Aktion Genklage Owner of the conto: Christiane Lüst

for international transit:

IBAN DE42 7025 0150 0017 0237 63

SWIFT-BIC: BYLADEM1KMS

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Some time ago we made you available a draft-expertise of Dr. Christoph Palme, Tuebingen (Germany), an expert in european constitutional and environmental law.

Under item B. of the draft expertise, which we enclose again, the exposé outlines the possibility of a succesful legal action of EU Member States against the EU for lack of competence in setting up powerful EU Authorities in the area of GMO policy (EFSA, EC-Commission etc.).

The expertise, which has parsed a vast array of relevant dispensation of justice, now is ready and shows under citation of the relevant case law of the ECJ, that legal actions of Member States before the European Court of Justice (ECJ) invoking "lack of competence" bear a high chance of success. That this is the only conclusion, which can be drawed of the case law of the ECJ, is shared by many legal experts.

In practice this means that every new authorisation of genetic engineered products issued by the EU Commission under the regulation 1829/2003/EC can be challenged.

So every EU-Member State opposing a new EU-authorisation of GMOs may institute within two months of the publication of the consent a legal action against this authorisation. Such procedures for the first time would pose the question of the legality of european law on GMOs which under infringement of the EU-treaty strips the EU Member States of their food sovereignty.

The first case for such an action would be the authorisation by the EU Commission of a genetic engineered soybean MON89788 of Monsanto, issued by the EU-Commission on 4th december 2008. This action would have to be instituted til end of January 2009 at the latest. All other consents issued under the reg. 1829/2003/EC could be challenged the same way which means 2 months after the respective publication of the consent.

We offer our assistance to every EU Member State, who opposes GMO products and the usurpation of power by an illegal EU body by delivering the argumentation we developed for such legal actions.

For further information please contact Christoph Palme (see below) or Christiane Lüst.

Kind regards

Dr. iur. Christoph Palme
Waldhäuserstr. 51
72076 Tübingen
www.naturschutzrecht.net
www.institut.naturschutzrecht.net
Tel. 0049 7071/687038
Fax. 0049 7071/6878162
mobile 0049 177 188 0299
christoph.palme@naturschutzrecht.net

The citizens of Europe challenge GE food before the European Court of Justice

Please support EU-wide coordinated legal action against EC-Commission and European Food Safety Authortiy EFSA!

Europes Citizens dislike genetically engineered food. Nevertheless the EC-Commission again and again in spite of hefty political resistance authorises ever more lines of GE-maize, GE-oilseed rape, GE-sobeans etc. Doing that, the EC-Commission refers to opinions delivered by the so called independent EFSA. But according to outstanding legal experts both EFSA and Commission breach the law:

- the EFSA does not require tests on the long term effects of GE food, although the amended EU-law precisely that explicitly prescribes

- By authorising GE-products, the Commission illegally usurps administrative power, which according to the EC-Treaties is assigned to the national states

The Institute for Nature Protection and Nature Protection Law (IfNN) Tübingen, Germany currently prepares a legal opinion for the international pressure group "Aktion Genklage" (legal action against GE), which is meant to be used as basis for legal proceedings in court actions against the Commission all over Europe. Aim is the preparation and counselling of european wide coordinated court action against EU-Commission and EFSA. Both consumers, farmers, retailers, producers and EU-Member States are entitled to demand the exigencies of EU law in such actions.

The IfNN has excellent references at its disposal when it comes to german and european law on genetic engineering. In july 2007 it achieved for a german state government a judicial cultivation stop concerning GE-maize against Monsanto. This landmark court case was the first time in history that german lawyer achieved such a success. In november 2007 an interview of an expert of the IfNN on swiss national TV SF1 brought about a review of the consent for an experimental release of GE wheat issued by the federal swiss environmental agency.

The costs for the opinions are summing up to 25.000 Euro, the following court actions, planned all over Europe on this basis can amount multiples of that. In our common interest for securing healthy and GE-free food we ask you for financial support to this important court action project.

our bank-connection: Kto-Nr.: 170 237 63

BLZ: 702 501 50 Kreissparkasse München Starnberg

Betreff: Aktion Genklage Ktoinhaber: Christiane Lüst

For further questions about it please contact:

Christiane Lüst

Berengariastr. 5, 82131 Gauting Tel.: 089 / 893 11 054

Mail: christiane.luest@t-online.de