Member state experts could discuss as early as Friday 14 October the European Commission’s proposals that seek to authorise the cultivation in the EU of new varieties of transgenic maize – proposals recently vetoed by the European Parliament (see EUROPE 11640).
With this in mind and aware that the vote in Parliament is not binding, Greenpeace has urged the Commission not to turn a deaf ear to the objections.
“The majority of EU governments have decided to ban the cultivation of these GM crops in their countries (see EUROPE 11403), and members of the European Parliament opposed their use across the EU. The Commission cannot ignore these voices if it is serious about restoring citizens’ trust in the EU. It makes no sense to grow these pesticide-producing GM crops in Europe. They harm the environment and fail to do the job they are meant to do”, argued Franziska Achterberg of Greenpeace. “In countries where farmers grow them, pests have become resistant to the insecticides released by the plants. Now farmers have started to plant GM crops that produce two or more different insecticides, further exacerbating environmental impacts”, she said.
Hitherto, numerous votes of objection by the European Parliament on GMOs have had no effect (see EUROPE 11568 and 11482) (EUROPE 11420).
Greenpeace hopes that things will be different this time. It is all the more hopeful as, in its communication of 14 September 2016 “Better regulation: Delivering better results for a stronger Union”, the Commission writes that it “will consider amendments to the rules governing EU-wide authorisation procedures in certain sensitive sectors in order to ensure that the Commission is not alone in assuming the responsibility to act where member states cannot give an opinion”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)