Brussels, 28/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - Resuscitated in March of this year, the draft regulation of July 2010 aiming to allow the member states to restrict or ban on their territory the cultivation of GMOs authorised in the EU is now ready for political agreement at the Environment Council of 12 June (see EUROPE 11031). Meeting in Brussels on Wednesday 28 May to prepare for this ministerial session, the Permanent Representatives of the Member States of the EU (Coreper) reached an agreement in principle on the compromise refined by the working group on GMOs. When asked to take position on the text, the delegations showed willing, which allowed the Greek Presidency to come to this conclusion.
The United Kingdom said it was in favour, France indicated that it would be “constructive”, Germany declined to take position but said that it would not oppose the regulation and Belgium said that it would abstain.
The compromise adds “a few clarifications and adjustments, but no substantial changes”, a diplomat stated on Wednesday.
These are the clarifications and adjustments: - the European Commission will play the role of intermediary between member states wishing to remove themselves from the scope of cultivation and the requesting company, which means that member states wishing to ban or limit the cultivation of a GMO will not have to deal with the industry or multinationals; - the text contains a non-exhaustive but more complete list of the reasons member states may invoke to ban or limit the cultivation of a GMO, such as environmental policy objectives, urban or rural management reasons, socio-economic impact, the requirement to prevent the presence of GMOs in other products, agricultural policy objectives or reasons of public order; - a revision clause for the text in four years has been added.
Readers may recall that the future regulation will modify the current legislation (directive 2011/18 on the voluntary dissemination of GMOs into the environment). (AN)