In a ruling made on Thursday 15 December, the General Court of the EU decided that the European Commission does not have to revise its decision not to re-examine the authorisation granted to Monsanto to market products containing genetically modified soya, as demanded by three German NGOs.
In this case (T-177/13), the Court was asked to make a ruling on a decision adopted on the subject by the Commission following a request for an internal re-examination under the “Aarhus regulation”, which decides the conditions for beginning legal proceedings on environmental matters by NGOs. This is the first case of this kind for the European courts.
This point is important because the German NGOs, as demonstrated by the Court, drew on many inappropriate arguments and opposed, for example, the favourable opinion given by the EFSA. Only arguments relating to the legality or the absence of grounds for the decision can be invoked, which explains why their request for a re-examination was dismissed. In this context, it is essential that “factual elements” and “elements of proof” are provided and which are likely to create “substantial doubts” regarding the legality of the granting of the marketing authorisation.
The NGOs did not succeed in doing this or provide arguments that were likely to invalidate the observations made by the Commission according to which: there are no significant differences between the genetically modified soybean and conventional soybean; 2) the potentially toxicological effects of the genetically modified soybean were correctly assessed; and 3) it is unlikely that the newly expressed proteins of the genetically modified soybean are allergenic for infants. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)