EU to face one-million-strong petition against GM crops

Oct 6, 2010, 18:42 GMT

Brussels - The European Commission is set to receive a one- million-strong petition asking for a moratorium on genetically- modified (GM) crops, environmental groups said Wednesday.

The initiative was launched in March after the commission, the EU's executive, broke with an unofficial 12-year freeze on new GM crops by authorizing a GM potato seed developed by German biotech giant BASF.

'Europeans are fed up with (the) commission pushing through GM crops in the face of public rejection,' said one of the promoters of the petition, Greenpeace's EU director Jorgo Riss.

Greenpeace and Avaaz, the organization which collected the signatures, said the petition will become the EU's first 'citizens' initiative,' a provision foreseen by the bloc's Lisbon treaty.

Citizens' initiatives would allow EU citizens to ask the commission to introduce or repeal specific items of legislation, provided that at least one million people back them and that their requests fall within the EU executive's competences.

But rules governing the mechanism have not been agreed yet, meaning that Greenpeace and Avaaz' petition will likely not be considered before next year.

Meanwhile, the commission has proposed to let EU member states decide themselves whether to approve GM crops, relinquishing the power it has held up to now.

But in discussions earlier this month, EU agriculture ministers appeared reluctant to endorse this go-it-alone approach. The issue is expected to be taken up again by EU environment ministers meeting next week in Luxembourg.