Commissioner Borg can give the green light for the cultivation of GM maize 1507 in the EU. It may even come right after the discussion in the ENVI Council. Tweet: @borgton to #stopthecrop and to withdraw the GM maize 1507 authorisation proposal! Read more: Opposition against genetic modification (GM) in food and farming is strong in the EU. Consumers do not want it: Eurobarometer polls show that a large majority of EU citizens are worried about GMOs in food and the fact that supermarkets do not stock GM food on their shelves reflects the fact that there is no market for it. Deputies do not want it: two-thirds of the Members of the European Parliament opposed the authorisation of GM maize 1507 on 16 January. Finally, Member States do not want it either: on 11 February 19 member states opposed the authorisation of GM maize 1507 for cultivation in the EU in a position taken in the European Council. 19 is a clear majority, but the Member States voting this way were not sufficient for a qualified majority which is required for decision-making. Therefore, the European Commission will whether decide to adopt or to withdraw the proposal for authorisation. NGOs including IFOAM EU have demanded that GM maize 1507 not be authorized. But despite the Council opinion the Commissioner in charge, Tonio Borg, seems to be determined to authorise the maize. His public statements, including via Twitter, draw attention to another yet related subject: Member-State discussions on the possibility of banning the cultivation of GMOs on their territory. This proposal has been on hold since the Danish EU presidency did not achieve a decision in the Council in 2012. Now Commissioner Borg has reopened the door to the Danish compromise and its weaknesses, such as an option that would give biotechcompanies owning the GMOs in question a final say in the approval of national bans. On the other hand, France is interested in strong national rights for GMO bans. The issue is to be discussed in the Council of Environmental ministers on 3 March. While a strengthened right for national bans is attractive to some Member States, it does not solve the contamination risk for the whole food sector and must not be used by the Commission to opt out from introducing responsible risk management. Get in contact with your national ministries and tell them the gaps in GMO legislation as regards safety and liability must be closed and on an improved proposal for national bans introduced. Commissioner Borg can give the green light for the cultivation of GM maize 1507 in the EU. It may even come right after the discussion in the ENVI Council. Tweet: @borgton to #stopthecrop and to withdraw the GM maize 1507 authorisation proposal! The whole GMO debate should be considered in the context of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. The food safety rules of the EU are an obstacle for US food industry that some negotiators would like to overcome. Despite the fact that trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht has declared that EU food safety standards on biotechnology would not be touched, the US clearly has a strong interest to water down EU GMO rules. The Commission’s work to protect EU legislation and citizens’ wishes must be closely scrutinized. The Commission plans to publish the evaluation report on GMO-free labelling schemes before the coming summer break, which could also be linked to the TTIP negotiation. Stakeholders were consulted on this issue in summer 2012. In the EU it is compulsory to label food and feed which contain GMOs and some voluntary national GMO-free labelling schemes complement this, but the American food industry would prefer to see removal of the labelling requirement and voluntary GMO-free labelling only. Rumours suggest that the Commission will also bring up the question of thresholds for GMO traces in food, feed and seed again. EU and US negotiators will meet again in Brussels during the week of 10 March for TTIP negotiations. Civil society actions are planned for 13 March – Hands off our food!
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 08:23:31 +0000
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