Brussels, 10/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 9 December as planned, the NGOs Avaaz and Greenpeace presented European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy John Dalli, with a petition signed by more than one million citizens from the 27 member states of the EU. The signatories are calling for a moratorium on authorisations for new genetically modified crops until Europe has an independent scientific body capable of correctly assessing the risks of these crops (EUROPE 10230). The first ever citizens' initiative (ECI) - which was brought in by the Lisbon Treaty - has therefore come into being, but it will still have to wait a while until it can be legally recognised as such, for good reason: the application regulation for the ECI is not yet in force, the Commission explained.
“I can assure you that there is a political will to listen to everybody, and one million signatures represents a voice which deserves to be listened to”, said John Dalli, who told the Environment Council of 14 October that he had received the petition from the NGOs (EUROPE 10236). José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, whom the petition was originally intended for, refused to receive it.
Alice Jay of Avaaz said: “The Commission now has more than 1 million reasons to listen to the concerns of the European citizens rather than continuing to give in to the pressure of the GM lobby”. Greenpeace's Jorgo Riss said: “The ball is now in the European Commission's court. Over a million citizens from every European country have spoken and now expect the Commission to change its course and take seriously the health and environmental problems of genetically modified crops.”
Speaking to the press on Thursday, however, the commissioner stated: “At this point I can't commit on action taken by the Commission”, adding that “the petition is not yet valid, because the citizens' initiative has not yet entered into force”.
Jorgo Riss replied: “This is the first time that the citizens of the EU have exercised their right of initiative and the Commission has no political reason to reject this initiative.” The ECI application regulation should be definitively adopted before the end of the year. The final vote of the Parliament is scheduled for 16 December in Strasbourg (EUROPE 10273). Once the regulation has been officially adopted and published, the member states will have 12 months to create the legal and administrative conditions to allow it to be implemented. Once the petition has been registered on the European Commission's website, it will be up to that institution to verify whether the petition is valid in terms of specific criteria. (A.N./transl.fl)