Is It Safe Yet?
The European Union’s (EU) Environment Council struck down eight proposals from the European Commission that would have required the lifting of national bans or restrictions on GMO products, specifically genetically modified corn and rapeseed. The move is seen as a blow to Europe's biotech industry and a boon to environmentalists who have long agitated against the safety of genetically modified food. The EU’s law provides that member states can institute bans on GMOs if the governments can justify their prohibitions. "The Commission has a legal obligation to make sure that the existing regulatory framework governing the release of GMOs is correctly applied by member states. That is why we proposed to lift the current bans or restrictions on certain GMOs in Austria, France, Germany, Greece and Luxemburg," said Stavros Dimas, Commissioner for the Environment. Some of the upheld "national safeguard measures" include bans or restrictions on cultivation, while others include bans on import and use in food and feed. The scientific rationale for these bans was submitted to the EU's Scientific Committees, who found that there was no new evidence to justify overturning the original decision authorizing use of certain GMO products in Europe. Despite this finding, 22 out of 25 member states voted in the Council to uphold the national bans.
The Council's decision may hurt the EU in a case filed by the U.S., Canada and Argentina to the World Trade Organization (WTO), which alleges that EU biotech policy harms trade and is not founded on science. The WTO is expected to issue a ruling on the case in October. Europe's own biotech industry is angry about the EU Council's unwillingness to lift the bans. "Today’s vote is another failure of member states to play by the rules that they themselves established. The EU’s approval process for safe GMOs is arguably the strictest in the world and these bans are not scientifically justifiable," said Simon Barber, Director of the Plant Biotechnology Unit at EuropaBio - the European Association for Bioindustries. The GMO products affected by the bans include three types of corn; Bt-176 made by Swiss biotech company Syngenta; MON 810, made by Monsanto; Bayer's T25, and two rapeseed types, both produced by Bayer. (IFT Newsletter, 6/30/05).
