Brussels, 19/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 19 July, the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) confirmed that it woudl be doing everything in its power to provide the European Commission with new scientific opinions on three GMOs for possible harvest, including MON 810 maize, and which have been authorised in the EU since 1998 but which are subject to safeguard clauses in 10 member states. It is therefore unlikely that the Commission will be able to decide whether to urge France to withdraw its temporary ban on growing MON 810 (EUROPE 10632) or proceed to any further approvals of GMO harvests. This news is music to the ears of the TEST Biotech Institute.
Last June, a few days after the most recent Environment Council, under the Danish presidency, the pulse of the member states regarding the July 2011 proposal was tested but the proposal still remains blocked. This proposal is aimed at allowing the EU27 to limit or ban authorised GMO crops, on which the European Commission had asked the EFSA to provide updated scientific recommendations (Monsanto's MON 810, Syngenta's1507 maize and Pioneer's bt11 maize), so that it would be able to make a decision on this matter. For all three genetically engineered crops, the Commission had asked EFSA to condense its information into a single recommendation for each GMO. All previous recommendations and declarations have taken into account the most recent available information about environmental risk assessment of these three genetically engineered crops. The European Commission explained that this initiative was made in order to enable those managing risk to have all the different factors in the equation available and updated, so that it was able to make an appropriate decision. EFSA was requested to submit these recommendations for 15 September but on 11 July it explained that it would make a concerted effort to provide a declaration in December for MON 810 and bT 11 and by end of October for 1507 maize.
Given that EFSA has concluded that these kinds of maize do not have any negative impact on health or the environment (its most recent conclusion was reached on 21 May for MON 810- EUROPE 10619), TEST Biotech interprets these new developments as a basis for questioning previous recommendations made by EFSA and an implicit admission of this. Christoph Then, speaking on behalf of TEST Biotech, explained that, “in our view, this is a first sign that the Commission acknowledges that the present risk assessment for genetically engineered crops must be improved considerably. If EFSA was honest they would admit that there isn't even any precise knowledge about the content of insecticidal Bt toxin in the plants. During the last ten years, there have been manifest problems with the independence of EFSA's GMO experts. Now, opinions that were already finished with are being put to test again. However, there is a reasonable assumption that EFSA's safety checks will in fact be more critical than in the past”. (AN/trans/fl)