Brussels, 29/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - Following the French Council of State's annulment of the French safeguard clause on the genetically modified maize (MON 810), Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed on Tuesday that his government would, “examine ways for preparing a new safeguard clause”. Although this would naturally delight environmentalists, the announcement received no official response from the Commission. This is because, in its decision made on Thursday 8 September (EUROPE 10448), the EU Court of Justice had already challenged the French safeguard clause on its mistaken legal basis and not because of its overall intention (Article 23, Directive 2001/18/CE invoked instead and in place of emergency measures in Regulation 1829/2003). It is therefore up to the French authorities (if it intends to continue with the suspension of MON 810 in complete legality) to notify the Commission prior to a new legally valid safeguard clause.
As soon as the decision by the Council of State was made known, José Bové MEP, deputy chairman of the European Parliament's agriculture and rural development committee, provided an angry response: “The French government now has all the different elements needed at a legal level and overall in this dossier to ensure that there is a solid safeguard clause, which conforms with European law”. In a press release, environment and agriculture ministers affirmed on the same day that, “questions on the environmental harmlessness of this maize remain and were in fact formulated in December 2009 by the Supreme Council for Biotechnologies (HCB) and the new scientific studies published since then. These persisting uncertainties have led the government to maintain in French territory, its opposition to cultivating MON810 maize. It is now examining the means to attain this objective”. The Council of State overruled the safeguard clause because the French Department of Agriculture did not prove, “the existence of a particularly high level of risk to health or the environment”. (AN/trans/fl)