D-Day looms for EU on GM crop cultivation
Print Edition
European governments must now decide once and for all if they are to block or permit the cultivation of genetically modified crops on the continent, the European Commission said yesterday.
The EU executive said it is now handing over to ministers a final decision on the cultivation of TC1507 corn by Pioneer after a European Court ruling that the company’s request for permission submitted in 2001 must be dealt with.
At the same time, the Commission is asking member states to accept or reject a proposal designed to end a three-year deadlock on the principle of GM cultivation, an issue that is unusually divisive in Europe.
The European Union’s 28 environment ministers meet in Brussels on December 13 and they will decide using qualified majority voting, which is weighted to take account of the bigger states.
The voting arithmetic lies behind the deadlock, because when the principle was last voted on in 2009, the heavyweights of Britain, France and Germany ended up cancelling each other out.
Asked to allow GM cultivation in the EU, but to leave space for national and even territorial opt-outs on non-health or environmental grounds, Britain was one of six backers.
France was among 12 states opposed and Germany leading a group of nine that abstained.
EU Health Commissioner Tonio Borg said that, following the court ruling, if there is still no clear majority either way, “the law as it stands (means) it would be deemed to have been approved.”
“Those who abstain are in effect voting in favour,” Borg said.
There are another six applications for authorisation in the commission’s pending tray.
To date GM crops have won repeated safety approvals from experts around the world despite environmentalists’ fears that they will harm the ecosystem and ultimately human health.
The Pioneer crop, for instance, has already six times been given a clean bill of health by the European Food Standards Authority, although the EU is waiting for proof of modifications demanded of the company, and the six pending applications have also secured EFSA backing.
Environmentalists accuse certain EFSA experts of enjoying too close links with the biotechnology industry.
Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg and Poland have each invoked safeguard measures to block the cultivation of Monsanto’s MON810 maize on their territories.
That is the only GM crop currently grown in Europe, after the makers of a GM potato abandoned commercialisation despite holding an authorisation.
There are, however, some 51 GM organisms authorised for import into the EU. The commission said that about 30 million tons of GM soya were imported for feed use in 2012.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
