Brussels, 29/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - Parliament, Council and Commission all blame one another. After more than 11 hours of talks, the three institutions finally admitted failure at 6.30am on Tuesday 29 March in their final attempt to find common ground on the proposal for a revised regulation on novel foods. 29 March was the deadline for reaching agreement (see EUROPE 10339). Yet despite all their efforts, negotiators were unable to agree on arrangements for banning foods from cloned animals and the offspring of cloned animals - a demand particularly dear to the European Parliament (EP) - and on arrangements for the compulsory labelling of all foods from cloned animals.
The Council and the EP were in agreement on requiring labelling of fresh beef, six months after the regulation came into force. The EP, however, continued to call for very complete labelling on foodstuffs from cloned animals or from the offspring of cloned animals. The Council could have gone along with labelling of first generation offspring of cloned animals reared in Europe or imported. It was prepared at a later stage to extend this labelling to all foods from the offspring of cloned animals on condition that the Commission carry out a feasibility study beforehand for the various types of food and submit a report within the next two years that would permit legislation to be passed, if necessary. The Council was not able to go as far as the EP wanted as, like the Commission, it feared a dispute with the United States, Argentina and Brazil at the WTO.
This resounding failure on a text that has been on the table since January 2008 has brought cries of indignation from all sides - including the main protagonists - as it nullifies three years of negotiations and the progress made in European legislation which would have help regulation of the import of foods from cloned animals into the EU where cloning for the purpose of producing food is not allowed. “It is deeply frustrating that Council would not listen to public opinion and support urgently needed measures to protect consumer and animal welfare interests”, said Gianni Pitella (S&D, Italy, who led the EP delegation in the negotiations, and Kartika Liotard (GUE/NGL, Netherlands), rapporteur on the novel foods regulation. They say that a commitment to label all food products from the offspring of cloned animals is “a bare minimum” and “no farmer would spend €10,000 on a cloned bull only to turn it into hamburgers”. Belgian Green MEP Bert Staes said that the Council's attitude was a denial of consumers' right to decide, on the basis of all the facts, whether or not they want to eat food from coned animals because “allowing food from the offspring of clones to be sold on the EU market without proper labelling effectively means giving the go-ahead to clone food in Europe”.
John Dalli, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, said this failure of conciliation procedure was a “great pity”. Currently, he deplored, there are no controls on cloning techniques and clones. He felt they could have had a more favourable regime on the traceability of reproductive material from cloned animals.
In addition to the question of cloning, talks on the revised Novel Food Regulation had hitherto allowed the institutions to reach agreement on a legal definition of nano-materials and their compulsory labelling, on a centralised and swifter authorisation procedure for facilitating innovation in the agri-food industry, and on specific measures for traditional foodstuffs from third countries. But now, all that is lost, he said. “We have lost the opportunity to codify these aspects already”, the commissioner added. Pointing out that, in October 2010, the Commission had, in order to break the deadlock on the issue, proposed a five year suspension of the cloning technique for food production in the EU, a ban on imports of clones, and traceability of reproductive material from cloned animals, the commissioner said: “I remain convinced that the only way to guarantee a good deal for EU consumers and food business operators is to deliver a proposal that is based on common sense and one that is both practicable and enforceable”. Monique Goyens, BEUC General Director, said the failure to reach agreement was a disgrace. She said the choice of Europeans was clear - they do not want cloning to be used for food production purposes but their views have not been heard. Food products from cloned animals do not bring any advantages to consumers, she said. (A.N./transl.rt/jl)