Brussels, 22/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - Slovenia set out for ministers, meeting at the Agriculture Council in Luxembourg on Thursday 22 October, the outcomes of a ministerial conference on GMO-free agriculture in Europe which took place on 21 August 2015 in Ptuj (Slovenia).
Ministers and representatives from a number of countries (Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Kosovo, Lithuania, Luxembourg, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Poland, Serbia and Slovenia) discussed whether maintaining GMO-free agriculture constitutes a competitive challenge but also an opportunity for agriculture in Europe. These countries plan to discuss the labelling of GMO-free products.
During the Council, several member states - Hungary, Italy, Slovenia and Austria - backed putting in place a common framework for GMO-free agriculture. Italy spoke of the need to reintroduce non-transgenic soya in the EU. Spain, the United Kingdom, Portugal and the Netherlands, on the other hand, all took the view that biotechnology represents an opportunity to be seized. The United Kingdom, indeed, argued against GMO-free product labelling.
The Commission pointed out that 19 countries had elected not to grow GM agricultural products (see EUROPE 11403). Health and Food Safety Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis said that investigation of non-GMO labelling was being conducted. He stated that the Commission's new proposal on the use of GMOs was along the same lines as that on cultivation and that the EU was heavily dependent on GM soya for livestock feed. He said the EU would continue to be a net importer of GM soya and that this state of affairs would have to be borne in mind in the EU's policy on GMOs.
Antimicrobial resistance. Germany briefed ministers on the outcome of a meeting of the G7 health ministers in Berlin (Germany) on 8 and 9 October, which included an item on resistance to antibiotics. It argued for the use of antibiotics exclusively for therapeutic, and not for preventative, purposes for animal and human health. Germany also put forward suggestions for minimising the use of antibiotics in animal health in the EU. Sweden pointed out that it had a national action plan in this area. Finland said that good health of livestock should not rest on antibiotics alone. Supporting Germany, the Netherlands indicated that this issue would be discussed during the Dutch presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of next year and hoped that the EU would strengthen its action plan in this area. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)