Brussels, 22/07/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the EU Council of Ministers adopted without debate two regulations relating to GMOs (traceability and labelling on one hand and feed and foodstuffs on the other), after the vote at second reading of the European Parliament, on 2 July this year (EUROPE of 3 July 2003, pages 8 to 10). The United Kingdom, Denmark and Luxembourg voted against the two regulations and Austria did not support the text on genetically modified foodstuffs and animal feed.
The new legislation, which will allow all GMOs to be traced along the whole production and distribution chain, is to take effect 20 days after the texts have been published in the Official Journal. Operators will then have six months in which to comply with the new requirements. The European Commission for its part considers that the first GMO authorisations could resume by the end of the year or early next year, subject to approval from the EU15 experts. Regulations state it will not be necessary to mention the accidental presence of unauthorised genetically modified material in the labelling of foodstuffs when the GM content is below 0.9% per ingredient. The legislation specifies that GMO derived products, such as highly refined oils or starch, which no longer contain modified DNA, and seeds intended for human use, should be labelled according to the same rules. It would, however, be possible to fix a lower threshold in the future, in the context of comitology procedure.