Brussels, 18/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday18 July, the US group, Monsanto, announced its decision to withdraw all demands for authorising GMO crops in the EU, apart from the MON810 maize.
This information was confirmed by the European Commission, which was pleased to, “take note of this decision”. Four requests from this multinational had up until now been examined, including another request for renewal for MON810 maize, explained the spokesperson for Commissioner Tonio Borg.
The Commission pointed out that three years ago it proposed revising legislation on growing GMOs in the EU. There is currently a blockade on this question, particularly because of the safeguard clauses raised by some countries on the grounds that the scientific basis for these requests was not “scientifically solid enough”, according to Borg's spokesperson. The Commission proposed looking at these arguments again which a country can, if it chooses, put forward. The text is, however, still blocked at a Council level, although Borg hopes to give it a new boost very soon.
The spokesperson for Borg acknowledges there is some reticence in certain EU countries about growing GMOs - 100,000 to 110,000 hectares of GMOs are grown in the EU, as opposed to 170 million hectares of GMOs worldwide. On the other hand, the EU does import a lot of GMOs. The spokesman explained that Monsanto had reached its conclusions because the EU scarcely grows any GMOs at all.
A representative from Monsanto in Europe stated that, “Monsanto will no longer be requesting authorisation for growing new GMOs in Europe and will be concentrating its capacity to import GMOs into the EU”. The US group is maintaining, however, its request for renewing the authorisation for MON810 maize, the only GMO currently being grown in the EU, mainly in Spain and a little in Portugal. At the end of May, the group had already made known its intention to withdraw its requests for growing GMOs, due to the increasing opposition of public opinion. Environmental groups such as Greenpeace and friends of the Earth have welcomed this backing down by Monsanto but suggested that they were not going to be taken in by the US group's intentions to continue to market its GMOs in Europe. (LC/trans.fl)