EU countries should be able to ban genetically modified plants

(25 June 2009) The Member States of the EU should decide for themselves in the future whether to permit the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) plants. At their meeting in Luxembourg on 25 June, EU ministers for the environment discussed among other issues this proposal raised by Austria and other countries. No concrete decisions were made.
The document was presented as an Austrian initiative and suggests that GM plants continue to be approved in the EU in general according to actual legal regulations but that individual countries nonetheless be allowed to prohibit the cultivation of the plants in question on the national level. The "gene-technology-friendly" Netherlands already had advanced a similar idea in March.

National cultivation bans are expected to be valid for an unlimited period of time. Furthermore, it is suggested that the EU Commission prepare a list of "socio-economic criteria" that may be cited in the justification of a national ban.

Currently, EU regulations allow a cultivation ban only in the case that a Member State is presented with new scientific findings that support doubt with regard to the safety of a GM plant. A national ban then is regarded as an effective measure towards the protection of the consumer or the environment from a newly recognised risk.

To date, numerous EU countries have made use of this prohibition clause. The most recent example is the German ban of MON810 maize.

The reasons given for such bans must be checked for soundness by the panel of experts at EFSA who are responsible for gene technology. At present, all national bans have been rebutted as scientifically unsound. However, the necessary majority was not reached at the requisite ballots in the council of ministers in order to enforce a removal of the bans.

Despite the European domestic market and common legal regulations agreed upon by all Member States, the cultivation of MON810 is allowed in some EU countries and not in others. The Austrian proposal would legalise this long-existing political reality. Each national government then could issue primarily politically-motivated cultivation bans without being obliged to deliver a scientific substantiation of new risks.

In Luxembourg, the ministers of the environment acknowledged the proposal. Other countries including Germany and France signalised their support. Nonetheless, no formal decisions were made. In any case, only the EU Commission may introduce changes to the existent legislation, with which the EU Parliament and Member States must be in agreement.

See also on GMO-Compass:

• Genetically Modified Food and Feed: The EU Regulatory Process

Further information:

• "On paper there is a clear division between science and politics. But the reality is different." (GMO Safety)