EU proposes member states act unilaterally on GM crops

Jul 13, 2010, 15:17 GMT

Brussels - European Union member states should be free to decide for themselves whether to allow the cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) on their territory, the bloc's executive said Tuesday in a bid to end a long-running deadlock over their use.

Under current rules, a majority of member states have to agree for GMOs to be planted anywhere in the EU. That has led to years of deadlock as national governments have argued over the environmental impact of such a move.

'The concrete measures adopted today will allow member states the freedom to decide on GMO cultivation ... I stress that the EU-wide authorisation system, based on solid science, remains fully in place,' said EU Health Commissioner John Dalli.

The proposals will have to be approved by member states and the European Parliament. They effectively hand back to national governments the power to decide whether to let GMOs be planted on their territory.

The leader of the liberal group in the EU assembly, former Belgian premier Guy Verhofstadt, said the commission's move amounts to 'an abdication of responsibility (which) undermines the integrity of the (European) internal market and sets a dangerous precedent for finding common solutions to other cross-border issues.'

Under current rules, the commission has the right to make a final decision on authorizing GMO crops across the EU in case member states fail to agree on the issue, as has been the case for the last decade.

The EU executive used that power in March to green-light the cultivation of a GM potato developed by German biotech giant BASF, sparking huge controversy.

The new proposals say that if the EU's food safety agency, EFSA, decides that a specific GMO is safe, each member state will be allowed to approve or ban it, without recourse to the other members.

The proposals are meant to make it easier for the EU as a whole to approve GMOs that EFSA considers to be safe, by removing the need for member states that oppose the plants to block their deployment across the EU.

EuropaBio, a Brussels-based group representing GMO producers, said it appreciated the commission's 'vision' to allow EU states to move forward on GMOs 'at their own pace.'

But it is unhappy with proposals that '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,' said EuropaBio's Director for Agricultural Biotechnology, Carel du Marchie Sarvaas.

At the other end of the spectrum, environmental groups Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth were also critical, saying in a joint statement that the commission failed to address the question of the environmental impact of GMOs.

'Individual bans cannot replace a scientifically sound EU-level safety procedure. GM contamination does not stop at national borders,' Greenpeace expert Stefanie Hundsdorfer said.