Austria, through its Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler, once again voiced its concerns at the EU Environment Council on Thursday 16 March about the safety of new generation GMOs, or plants derived from ‘new genomic techniques’ (NGTs), criticising the Commission for basing its approach “on assumptions” rather than on a thorough scientific assessment of environmental and health risks.
Ahead of the Commission’s proposal, expected on 7 June, it asked the EU Council Presidency to consider setting up an ad hoc working group for the forthcoming discussions at EU Council level involving all relevant areas (environment, health and agriculture) (see EUROPE 13142/21).
The delegations that took the floor in support of Austria (Cyprus, Hungary, Luxembourg, Germany, Slovakia, Estonia, Slovenia, Belgium), all called for the application of the precautionary principle, as had been done by the Environment Ministers in December 2021 (see EUROPE 12858/16).
A contrario, the Netherlands and Denmark intervened to express their support for the Commission, convinced that Directive 2001/18/EC (deliberate release of GMOs into the environment), which governs the authorisation of GMOs by imposing their assessment and labelling and traceability requirements, is no longer adequate.
Commissioner for Environment Virginijus Sinkevičius replied that the dossier had been subject to an “inclusive and comprehensive” consultation process from 2021 – a process that informed the impact assessments. He assured that “safety remains at the heart of our food policy” and that “future measures will be based on the various scientific data available”.
In a statement, the environmental NGO Friends of the Earth Europe welcomed the Ministerial protest. “We call on the Commission to listen to the concerns of the Ministers and the 400,000 European citizens who have asked to retain their right to choose what they eat and grow”, the NGO said. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)