EU Ministers to decide on four more GMO approvals
(January 2, 2008) The EU Council of Ministers is to decide on the authorisation of four more genetically modified plants comprised of three maize lines and one potato line. The European Commission submitted the necessary proposals to the Council shortly before the Christmas recess.
The Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health failed to deliver an opinion on the placing on the Community market of the four products and some Member States in the Committee did not consider the positive opinion of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to be fully satisfactory. The drafts concern three maize hybrids developed by the biotech company Monsanto based on the maize lines MON810, MON863 and NK603 that already are authorized in the European Union. However, the antibiotic marker gene nptII present in all three new hybrids was considered undesirable by some Member States even though the EFSA reconfirmed that the use of this gene poses no risk to human or animal health or the environment. The applications exclude the cultivation of the maize hybrids and address its import and processing for use as food and feed.
The fourth proposal concerns the market placement of feed from the genetically modified potato EH92-527-1 as well as its adventitious or technically unavoidable presence in food and other feed products. Known as “Amflora”, the potato possesses an improved starch profile and is designed for industrial purposes. The request was submitted by the company BASF Plant Science and the Commission is empowered to adopt all four proposals if the Council of Ministers is unable within the next three months to establish a relevant decision by qualified majority.
See also on GMO-Compass:
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