Brussels, 15/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - The new legislation that, in future, will govern more strictly marketing authorisation and the voluntary dissemination of genetically modified organisms into the environment for cultural and research purposes, was formally adopted on Thursday. The Council endorsed the text of the EP/Council agreement by written procedure and by qualified majority (Italy and France abstained). The agreement was concluded in conciliation on 8 November last on the revised directive 90/220/EEC, an agreement that the Parliament had itself endorsed on 14 February in Strasbourg (see EUROPE of 15 February, p;14).
The formal adoption of this directive that the Member States should transpose into internal law in the eighteen months after its publication in the Official Journal changes nothing, for now, regarding the de facto moratorium in force in the Union since June 1999 on all new GMO marketing authorisations. The five Member States - France, Denmark, Greece, Austria and Luxembourg - that confirmed their attachment to keeping the moratorium, as long as new provisions are not in force concerning the traceability and labelling of products, as well as a system of environmental accountability, will not be in infringement with the Community law as long as the deadline for transposition of the directive has not been reached. The commitment given by the Commission to submit new legislative proposals to the next Environment Council in March should not change the point of view of these delegations.