Brussels wants to give EU members right to decide on GMO cultivation

Plans to give individual EU member states the right to allow, restrict or ban the cultivation of genetically modified organisms were unveiled by Health and Consumer Affairs Commissioner John Dalli yesterday.

Mr Dalli said that while keeping the EU’s science-based genetically modified authorisation system unchanged, the new proposals allowed flexibility to member states.

He denied claims he was trying to push GMOs into the EU market or to make a trade-off with member states for a more liberal authorisation process of GMOs. He insisted he just wanted to give member states more freedom.

“Experience with GMOs so far shows member states need more flexibility to organise the coexistence of GM and other types of crops such as conventional and organic crops,” he said.

“Granting genuine freedom on grounds other than those based on a scientific assessment of health and environmental risks also necessitates a change to the current legislation. I stress that the EU-wide authorisation system, based on solid science, remains fully in place.”

The proposals, which still need the approval of member states and the European Parliament, provide for an additional article in the directive explicitly allowing the countries to restrict or prohibit cultivation of GMOs on their territories. Member states will be able to use any grounds to do so, other than those covered by the health and environmental risk assessment of the EU authorisation process.

At present, the authorisation process of GMOs in the EU is on a case by case basis and is almost completely stalled as member states are divided on whether this type of cultivation should be allowed or not in the EU.

Public opinion in Europe is generally against GM foods and its cultivation in Europe. The biggest two countries, which also command the largest political clout, Germany and France, are against GMO cultivation and have criticised Mr Dalli’s latest move.

French Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire said his country had strong reservations about the proposal on breaking the deadlock on authorising GMOs. “We want decisions to continue to be made on a Community level, not the renationalisation of these decisions,” the minister said.

“Any renationalisation of agricultural issues is a step in the wrong direction. Everything that increases solidarity, working together, imagination, innovation and daring is a move in the right direction,” he added.

Spain, the biggest GM supporter in the EU, and Belgium, which holds the rotating EU presidency, also spoke against Mr Dalli’s initiative.

The Commission’s proposals were immediately shot down by the environmental and anti-GMO lobby. In a joint statement, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace called on national governments to reject the Commission’s proposals.

Mute Schimpf, of Friends of the Earth, said that while the European Commission was seemingly offering countries the right to implement national bans, “in reality the proposal aims to do the opposite, opening Europe’s fields to GM crops”. The Commission, he said, continued to fail to protect Europe’s food and feed from contamination by GM crops.

The biotechnology industry also said it was disappointed with the proposal.

Carel du Marchie Sarvaas, at EuropaBio, the pan-European biotechnology industry group, said: “These proposals appear to give carte blanche to ban safe and approved GM crops in any country or region regardless of the needs or wishes of their farmers.”