Brussels, 22/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - In an opinion published on Tuesday 22 March 2011 in combined cases C58/10 to C68/10 at the European Court of Justice, Advocate General Paolo Mengozzi says that the February 2008 decision by the French government to stop growing Monsanto's genetically-modified maize, MON 810, in France is illegal.
MON 810 was first authorised in France in 1998 under EU Directive 90/220/EEC on the voluntary spread of genetically-modified organisms (GMO) into the environment, which was amended and repealed by Directive 2001/18/EC. In 2007, Monsanto requested the renewal of its permit to market MON 810 not under the directive but under Regulation 1829/2003 on genetically modified food and feed. Under Regulation 1829/2003, the authorisation lasts ten years and if a renewal request is lodged, then the initial authorisation continues during the renewal process until the decision is made. The French government suspended the growing of this GMO using emergency measures because of serious risk to the environment, using the safety clause included in Directive 2001/18/EC.
Paolo Mengozzi says that France was not entitled to use the safety clause because MON 810 was not authorised under the directive but instead under Regulation 1829/2003 and because the only emergency measures applicable in this case are those set out in the Regulation. Under the Regulation, however, it is the European Commission alone that can pass emergency measures decided by itself or upon request from a member state. The French government was therefore not entitled to unilaterally introduce such a measure because it did not ask the Commission to intervene before it did so.
Looking at the criteria for emergency measures on GMOs, Paolo Mengozzi said that under the precautionary principle, such measures can be taken under Regulation 1829/2003 if there is a risk of damage to human health, the health of animals or the environment that is not hypothetical and that the likelihood of such damage being caused is not insignificant, even if it is not necessarily known in detail. (F.G./trans.fl)