Experts from EU Member States, meeting in the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (EU PAFF Committee), failed on Friday 8 March to approve or reject the European Commission's proposal for the authorisation or renewal of authorisation of Monsanto GMOs for food and feed use.
The lack of the required qualified majority explains this failure.
The marketing of genetically modified soybean MON 877751 (MON 87751-7) and the renewal of the marketing authorisation for transgenic maize 1507 × NK603 (DAS-Ø15Ø7-1 × MON-ØØ6Ø3-6) were under review.
In both cases, the authorisation proposed by the Commission concerns both the GMOs themselves and the products containing them.
Under comitology rules, the absence of a qualified majority for or against is considered as a lack of opinion, even if the majority of Member States are against a proposed authorisation.
If the result in the Appeals Committee is the same, it will be up to the Commission to decide on its own initiative. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)