Brussels, 23/06/2003 (Agence Europe) - Over 200 Italian MPs, including 29 MEPs from all political groups, have written to President Prodi to launch an appeal ahead of the vote in plenary on the regulation on traceability and labelling of genetically modified organisms (Trakatellis recommendation, to be debated at the plenary of 1 July in Strasbourg: Ed). At a press conference on 23 June, the MPs, including Monica Frassoni, co-President of European Parliament group Greens/FTA, stressed that "co-existence" between conventional and organic agriculture and genetically modified organisms entails a risk of compromising the safety and quality of Italian agro-foodstuffs.
The MPs also presented an open letter on the need for "precautions on GMOs", which had been sent to them by a range of organisations, including Greenpeace, WWF, Legambiente, Coldiretti, and Federconsumatori, who particularly stress the need for a maximum threshold for the accidental contamination by GMOs of 0.5%. These organisations flag up the irreversible nature of GMO propagation in the environment, and that it will very soon be very difficult and expensive to limit this accidental presence in non-GMO crops if measures are not taken immediately to stop genetic contamination.