Brussels, 13/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - The cultivation of TC 1507 maize by Pioneer-Dupont will soon be authorised in the EU, despite the political position of 19 member states (see EUROPE 11092 and 11022). Speaking to the press in Luxembourg on Thursday 12 June, after the Environment Council which gave its political blessing to the draft amendment of the legislation (Directive 2011/18/EC) to allow the member states to limit or ban on their territory the cultivation of GMOs authorised in the EU (see EUROPE 11099), Tonio Borg, European Commissioner for Health, confirmed this. However, he did not say when the formal decision would be taken by the European Commission.
In response to a journalist who asked him whether this authorisation would take effect before the summer, or whether the Commission would wait for the new European Parliament to be in place, the commissioner replied: “The application for authorisation goes back 13 years. There are two Court of Justice rulings. I sent the proposal to the Council in February, under the old procedure. The Court ruling of 26 September [Ed: against the Commission's unreasonable delay in the authorisation procedure (case T-164/10)] obliges the Commission to follow the old comitology procedure. The member states are aware of this. I do not know when the decision will be taken. We have internal procedures to follow”.
Readers may recall that, under the old procedure for the authorisation of GMOs, in the absence of a qualified majority at the Council to approve or reject the authorisation, the Commission takes the decision on its own. (AN)