Brussels, 15/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - Syngenta, the Swiss agri-chemicals cited the lack of profitability in Europe to justify the withdrawal (announced on Tuesday 13 October) of two authorisation requests for transgenic maize (MIR 604 and GA21) in the EU, where two thirds of member states are opposed to the cultivation of GMOs (see EUROPE 11410).
Questions regarding the argument invoked are therefore pertinent, given the revelations that appeared in the newspaper, Le Monde on 14 October, which provoked a lot of anger among MEPs. Even according to Syngenta's own admission, six varieties of genetically modified maize authorised for import into the EU for human food and animal feed have been subject to genetic modifications that were not submitted for tests by the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) during the authorisation procedure. It was not until July 2015 that the company notified EFSA and the European Commission about additional genetically modified traits, despite the fact that imports of these authorised GMOs took place between 2008 and 2011. Syngenta provided assurances that there were no repercussions on human or animal health.
Marc Tarabella (S&D, Belgium), however, said that the scandal required an investigation and on 15 October stated: “Several genetically modified kinds of maize marketed in Europe are no longer those that obtained the blessing of the Commission. In the countries that authorised it, citizens consumed non-authorised genetically modified vegetables over a number of years. An investigation must be opened to determine Syngenta's responsibility in all this”. In a joint statement, the MEPs Bart Staes (Belgium) and José Bové (France) declared that “this scandal reveals all the dysfunctions in the GMO authorisation process in the EU. It highlights the fundamental problems in the risk assessment process carried out by the European Food Safety Agency, which is entirely dependent on the information provided by these companies. We demand a radical reform in the procedure, as promised by the President of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)