Brussels, 05/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - Nineteen of the twenty-eight EU member states have informed the European Commission of their intention to opt out of the growing of GMOs in some or all of their land, although these GMOs have been given the go-ahead to be grown in the EU.
The Commission made the announcement on Sunday 4 October, the day after the deadline for the member states to notify their intentions under EU Directive 2015/412/EU, which gives them greater room for manoeuvre to decide for themselves what they want.
The countries planning to ban GMO cultivation are Germany (apart from GMOs for research purposes), Austria, Belgium (only in Wallonia), Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom (for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland).
In a press release, the European Commission says the number of opt-outs confirms that the new directive provides the necessary legal framework for a complex issue, arguing that the member states are listening to their inhabitants, who are having their say.
Greenpeace sees it more as the expression of lack of trust in the GMO authorisation procedure in the EU (see EUROPE 11401). “This confirms what we already know - that a clear majority in Europe is opposed to genetically-modified crops. It is clearly regrettable that the Commission and some member states want to push ahead with GMO cultivation in spite of the myriad of problems this poses, also cross-border,” said Bart Staes (Greens/EFA Belgium), his group's spokesman for food safety. He warned: “It is imperative that the Commission and the minority of pro-GMO governments both respect and actively support all those EU governments that have opted to ban GMO cultivation. There are serious concerns that the legal framework for these opt-outs (...) is not watertight. This could lead governments subject to challenges from biotech corporations.” (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)