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EU - GMO BANS TO BE REVIEWED

EU to review national GMO bans from moratorium era
September 5, 2004 - Reuters

BRUSSELS - Officials were cited as saying on Tuesday that six EU governments face pressure to scrap national bans on certain gene-spliced foods that had been approved for growing and processing before the bloc began its 1998-2004 biotech ban.

The story says that Austria, Britain, France, Germany, Greece and Luxembourg used a get-out clause in one of the EU´s various laws that regulates the environmental risk of GMO crops.

That allows an EU government to restrict, provisionally, the use or sale of a specific GMO product on its territory if there are grounds for concern over a possible risk to human health or the environment. The country must also justify its concern.

In every case, EU scientists were cited as saying the bans were unjustified and the European Commission -- the EU´s executive arm -- told the country concerned to lift it. But this never happened.

Now, diplomats say, the Commission wants to sort out what it sees as an anomaly from the period of the EU´s biotech ban -- a de facto moratorium that effectively blocked any new GMO approvals but ended in May.

The story explains that part of the rush to lift the bans, they say, is due to a case filed against the EU by the United States, Canada and Argentina at the World Trade Organisation. The three GMO producers say the EU´s moratorium flouted world trade norms.

One EU diplomat was quoted as saying, "Now that the (new) legislation is in force, in theory everything should be working fine. But the Commission can see that the safeguard clauses are not necessarily the easiest way to defend the WTO case. My impression is that they (the Commission) are keen to get them off the agenda or take decisions on them."

[link to www.afaa.com.au]

Official European Union policy on genetically modified organisms stands to protect the health of consumers as well as the environment. In 1990, the first major EU order on GMO´s was issued. Directive 90/220/EEC banned the deliberate release of GMO´s into the environment (JO, 1990). For the next 8 years, however, this directive was amended several times to allow the production and sale of certain GMO´s. This included the authorization of 18 GMO´s in 1991 (Europa, 2004).

In January 2004, the EU lifted its ban on a certain type of Bt corn, Bt11. This was seen as a victory for pro-GMO lobbyists and many Europeans feel the sanctioning of Bt corn will pave the way for the approval of other GMO´s. Along with Bt approval came stringent labelling rules. In 1997, the EU has required the labelling of GMO´s sold on the market. Beginning in April 2004, new regulations will require the labelling of all GM foods and seeds (Regulation 1829/2003) and traceability of GMO´s sold on the market (Regulation 1830/2003) (Europa, 2004).

[link to www.bio.davidson.edu]



EU investigates accidental release of unauthorised GMO

[link to www.euractiv.com]


It´s so easy to say "you stupid Americans" instead of addressing this as a problem that concerns us all.
It is coming no matter where you are.