EU regulation update: Most SCENIHR members are not experts on EMF

The external committee has conflicts of interests Mr. John Ryan, Acting Director, Public Health Directorate in the European Commission wrote to UK activist and EM Radiation Research Trust manager, Eileen O'Connor, on the 22.4.14 "I would like to stress that members of the SCENIHR are experts in many disciplines (not only EMF) and the majority of them have no publications in the EMF area. We are therefore confident that the SCENIHR will adopt an unbiased opinion, as it did on many other scientific subjects".

Exceptions (those from the SCENIHR committee who are from the EMF field) are Dr. Norbert Leitgeb from Austria, who was in the ICNIRP and Chair Dr. Theodoros Samaras from Greece. Historical information about Dr. Leitgeb's general view can be found on Microwave News. According to his view, mobile phone base stations studies are a waste of time and money. http://microwavenews.com/news/backissues/m-j03issue.pdf http://microwavenews.com/news/backissues/n-d02issue.pdf

As for Dr. Theodoros Samaras, in his declarations of interests, he declared that in 2010 and 2102 he was a scientific advisor to Vodafone for the development of the "Netpolis Game- Build…your own mobile network"

This game is an "Interactive game for the Corporate Social Responsibility of Vodafone, which allows people to build their own cellular network via the Internet. The implementation of the Portal contains several advanced features, while Converge has supported its dissemination in the form of a viral application in the Web." http://www.converge.gr/digital/en/sectors/TELECOMS-MOBILE/Vodafone-NetPolis-game-

The SCENIHR external committee declared conflicts of interests:

Dr. Maria Rosaria Scarfi, a member of *COST BM0704 declared connection to Telecom Italia and CTIA (wireless industry). Dr. Olga Zeni declared connection to Telecom Italia and CTIA. Prof' Mats-Olof Mattsson (Chair of the working group until March 2013) declared connection to TeliaSonera, Swedish mobile industry. Dr. Zenon Sienkiewicz declared shares in British Telecom. He is also member of ICNIRP and the government-industry research program (MTHR) Dr. G. James Rubin is a member of MTHR too. Prof. Anssi Auvinen represents Finland in the COSMOS study. The Finnish part of COSMOS is funded by the Finnish Agency for Technology and Innovation (WIRECOM research program) and Yrjö Jahnsson foundation. The WIRECOM program received funding from Nokia, TeliaSonera and Elisa. He wrote in his

declaration to SCENIHR, that he receives funding from the Mobile Manufacturers Forum. Dr. Joachim Schüz declared connection to Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the US power industry research arm. He also declared that he was a management committee member of *COST BM 0704, and an Interphone member. Microwave News pointed out, that Dr. Schüz is listed in Austrian mobile phone advisory group that has received funding from the telecom companies, at this link towards the end http://www.wbf.or.at/wbf-expertenforum/expertenforum-2009/expertenliste/ Dr. Schüz is also in the industry- funded COSMOS study http://www.thecosmosproject.org/partners.php

* IT'IS Foundation was appointed as the Grant Holder of COST Action BM0704 http://www.itis.ethz.ch/news-events/news/other-news/it-is-foundation-appointed-as-the-grant-holder-of-cost-action-bm0704/

IT'IS foundation receives funding from the following industries:

• Alcatel-Lucent, France • ARIB, Japan • Arizona Chemical, USA • Biotronik, Germany • Boston Scientific Corporation, USA • Cisco Systems, USA • Clarins Laboratories, France • CTIA, USA • Disney Research, USA • Ericsson, Sweden • GE Medical Systems, USA • GSM Association, Switzerland • Intel Corporation, USA • International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), USA • Kaba, Switzerland • LG Electronics, Korea • Micro Systems Engineering, USA • Mitsubishi Electric, Japan • Motorola, USA • Nokia, Finland • Nokia Solutions and Networks, Finland • NTT DoCoMo, Japan • Panasonic, Japan • Philips Healthcare, Netherlands • Phonak Communications AG, Switzerland • Qualcomm Inc., USA • Sagem, France • Samsung, Korea • Siemens Healthcare, Germany • Sony Ericsson, Japan • Sorin S.A.S., France • Sunrise Communications AG, Switzerland • TCT Mobile & Alcatel Mobile Phones, France

• Toshiba Medical Research Institute USA, Inc., USA • Vodafone, United Kingdom

http://www.itis.ethz.ch/who-we-are/funding/

Dr. Theodoros Samaras, SCENIHR Chair, is COST MB 0704 management participant, too http://www.cost.eu/domains_actions/bmbs/Actions/BM0704?management

According to IT'IS website, Dr. Samaras is "a longterm friend and colleague of the IT'IS foundation" http://www.itis.ethz.ch/news-events/news/awards/award-for-best-scientific-paper-presented-by-a-student-at-bioem2013/

Mr. John Ryan wrote to Eileen O'Connor, that "as far as an alleged conflict of interest of members of the SCENIHR and the working group on electromagnetic fields is concerned, the Secretariat concluded that, based on the available declarations of interest and further information provided by the experts, no facts were established which would put into question the independence of Committee's members or of the external experts involved in the preparation of the preliminary opinion on potential health effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields".

"Thank you for expressing your concerns about transparency and impartiality, which are indeed among the guiding principles of the independent Scientific Committees. The committees' high ethical standards attract leading scientists to volunteer their time and energy with the aim of protecting public health, and those who are selected to participate are carefully screened to ensure that they are indeed unbiased and free from conflicting interests. I assure you that we take every care to safeguard the committees' excellent reputation and work diligently and honorably for the public good".

From Christine Aschermann:

Ombudsman opens investigation into Commission's expert groups

The European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, has opened an investigation on her own initiative into the composition and transparency of the Commission's expert groups. As a first step, she is asking interested persons and organisations for feedback on how balanced the representation of relevant areas of expertise and interest is in different groups, how transparent the groups are and how well the application procedures work.

Emily O'Reilly explained: "The Commission relies heavily on the advice of hundreds of expert groups to draw up legislation and policy, covering areas from tax and banking services, to road safety and pharmaceuticals. It is of utmost importance for these groups to be balanced and to work as transparently as possible so that the public can trust and scrutinise their work."

Strategic use of own-initiative investigations

When Emily O'Reilly took office as European Ombudsman in October 2013, she announced that she would use her own initiative power to investigate systemic problems in the EU administration more strategically. To this end, she appointed an internal co-ordinator for own-initiative inquiries. The expert groups investigation is the first in a series of strategic own-initiative inquiries which will be opened during the coming months.

With the help of the public consultation, the Ombudsman will investigate which expert groups may lack a balanced representation of interests, whether the appointment of members "in a personal capacity" is problematic and whether expert groups work as transparently as possible. The invitation to the public consultation is available here: http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/cases/correspondence.faces/en/54300/html.bookmark

Specific investigation into expert groups for common agricultural policy

The Commission (DG AGRI) is currently setting up 14 "civil dialogue groups" which will serve as advisory bodies for the common agricultural policy. More than a third of the EU's budget goes into this crucial policy area. The Ombudsman has therefore opened an investigation into the composition of these groups to guarantee a balanced representation of the wide range of economic and non-economic interest groups. You can find the opening letter for this specific investigation here:

http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/cases/correspondence.faces/en/54297/html.bookmark

The European Ombudsman investigates complaints about maladministration in the EU institutions and bodies. Any EU citizen, resident, or an enterprise or association in a Member State, can lodge a complaint with the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman offers a fast, flexible, and free means of solving problems with the EU administration. For more information: http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu

For press inquiries: Ms Gundi Gadesmann, Deputy Head of the Communication Unit, tel.: +32 2 284 26 09, Twitter @EUombudsman

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_EO-14-12_en.htm