More than 40 NGOs wrote to the European Commission on Thursday 23 May asking it to refrain from authorising controversial new GMOs in the EU and to lay the groundwork now for a future GMO policy that gives priority to the protection of public health and the environment.
These NGOs fear that before handing over to the next Commission, the institution will authorise a dozen GMOs that have been the subject of a favourable opinion from EFSA, even though not all potentially harmful effects on the environment have been properly assessed.
In this letter, these organisations active in the field of science, environmental protection, lobby control or agricultural trade unions also ask the Commission to “prepare to establish higher standards for risk assessment and to prepare to reorganise the responsibility for the protection of health and the environment in the upcoming new EU Commission to make sure that the protection of health and the environment is given the highest priority in the GMO policy of the EU”.
Among the signatories are: TestBiotech, Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), AbL, BUND, Friends of the Earth Europe (FOEE), European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility (ENSSER), GeN, Slow Food Germany.
Of the 12 applications for authorisation that may be approved in the near future, NGOs justify their worries by pointing out that: - three concern maize producing insecticidal toxins for cultivation - including Bayer-Monsanto's MON 810 already grown in Spain and awaiting reauthorisation. However, they point out that there is a risk of uncontrolled spread from these plants: a wild maize related species (teosinte) has been proliferating in Spain for several years; - many of these plants are hybrid GMOs (including different varieties of maize producing up to six insecticide toxins) that have been genetically modified to resist several herbicides; - one of the maize imports presents additional risks: MON 87411 which produces a so-called 'double-stranded' RNA (dsRNA) of which the impact for health safety and for the environment can currently not be assessed sufficiently. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)