A group of more than 50 NGOs and farming organisations once again criticised, on Tuesday 7 September, the biased approach of the European Commission, which they accuse of uncritically following the wishes of the biotech industry to deregulate new GMO food products, in defiance of the precautionary principle and environmental and consumer protection standards.
At issue is the Commission’s Health Services’ April study on new genomic techniques, which calls for a simplification of the EU GMO authorisation procedure on the grounds that the 2001 GMO Directive (2001/18/EC) is no longer adapted to these techniques (see EUROPE 12718/12, 12709/17).
While EU Agriculture Ministers support this approach (see EUROPE 12728/6), NGOs criticise the Commission for a “biased approach from the outset”, i.e. during the consultation phase.
They claim that: - the Commission has relied too much on the industry’s unverifiable claims that the new GMOs will address the climate crisis; - the institution ignored a large body of scientific evidence and analysis indicating the risks associated with the new techniques; - it misleadingly downplays the prevalence of herbicide tolerance in new genetically modified crops; - the Commission dubiously claims that the new GMOs cannot be detected.
To view the NGO document: https://bit.ly/3BUgIqL (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)