Brussels, 05/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - There is no question of foods from cloned animals or their offspring being found on the plates of EU consumers and there will be no question either of authorising the commercialisation of food produced from nano-technology produced foods, without any guarantee of
safety and transparency.
Members of the environment, health and food safety committee at the European Parliament, chaired by Jo Leinen (S & D, Germany), reaffirmed their rejection in this connection in no uncertain terms on Tuesday 4 May in Brussels, by adopting the report by Kartika Tamara Liotard (GUE/NGL, Netherlands) by a very large majority (49 votes in favour, two against, with three abstentions) on the new foodstuffs. The Council's common position on the January 2008 regulation was examined, which intends to revise legislation on new foodstuffs and food ingredients, in an effort to facilitate the marketing of the said products through simplified evaluation and authorisation procedures to encourage greater innovation (EUROPE 9929). Members of the Parliamentary committee are hoping that the European Parliament will follow their recommendation when they give their opinion during the plenary session on this text and will subsequently and reiterate the unambiguous position the committee had already expressed during the first reading in March 2009 (EUROPE 9870).
Welcoming the main demands of the MEPs, Ms Liotard declared, “with this vote, the environment committee has supported the labelling of food derived from animals fed on genetically modified foodstuffs and has also supported the exclusion of food derived from cloned animals and their offspring. A moratorium will be applied as long as specific legislation on cloning has not been adopted”.
The second reading recommendation was guided by the precautionary principle and the need to guarantee a high level of consumer and animal protection. It advocates the comprehensive exclusion of food derived from cloned animals and their offspring in the field of the regulation's application. This demand clearly goes against the common position of the Council which not only wanted the new regulation to be explicitly applied to foodstuffs derived from animal cloning (as proposed by the European Commission) but which also went beyond the initial proposal by extending the field of application of the future regulation to foodstuffs produced from cloned animals and their offspring.
The determination of the environment committee reiterates the demand by MEPs for foodstuffs produced with the assistance of nano-technology or consisting of nano-materials to be banned from the European market as long as nano-technology used to produce food has not been subject to specific and adequate risk assessment and until there is better knowledge of the potential effects of nano-materials on health.
Members of the Parliamentary committee are also calling on the plenary to demand that, before including any new food in the list of new foodstuffs authorised in the EU, there is reference, if necessary, to the opinion of the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies on the ethical and environmental implications of cloning in food production. In its opinion published in January 2008, this group expressed doubts that cloning for food supply objectives was ethically justifiable, given the current level of suffering and health problems experienced by cloned animals. Were cloned animal derived foodstuffs to be introduced onto the European market, the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies recommends that there is a prior guarantee establishing the safety of such products for human consumption and that scientific studies are carried out and regularly updated on the offspring of cloned animals. (A.N./transl.fl)