Brussels, 23/07/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the European Commission published guidelines for the development of strategies and best practices to ensure the co-existence of genetically modified (GM) crops with conventional and organic farming. Speaking to reporters, however, Commissioner Franz Fischler acknowledged that the Commission has not ruled out legislation in the longer term. Fischler's initial draft guidelines were amended slightly at the meeting of the College of Commissioners to make them less strict with regard to possible future measures. The sentence “appropriate measures cannot be laid down at EU level” was scrapped (see details of the guidelines in EUROPE of 19 July 2003, p.10).
Introducing the document, Fischler said the Commission was aware that measures had to be taken to ensure freedom of choice for farmers and settle the question of liability, but did not think everything could be decided in a centralised fashion in Brussels. Various decisions have to be taken at national level taking account of local circumstances, explained Fischler, given the variation in farming methods from one Member State to the next (farm size, farming methods, crops grown, climate, civil liability and neighbourhood rights). Basically the Commission believes that guidelines are needed at EU level on co-existence with specifics worked out at Member State level. He said coexistence was a good example of the application of subsidiarity, taking measures where they will be the most effective and most relevant. In response to reporters' questions, Fischler said the EU should start with not very onerous measures to solve the problem and once data from the Member States has been compiled and compared, stricter measures may be taken in the light of experience. He said one needed to see which varieties of GMO would be authorised, adding that the EU had not rejected the idea of legislation out of hand, but had decided first to pool experience and take it from there two or three years down the line in terms of deciding whether EU regulations needed to be adopted. Things should be seen dynamically, said Fischler, admitting that various Member States wanted EU measures to be introduced as soon as possible to solve the problem of co-existence, but that the Commission had a different point of view, feeling that legislation at present would not be a good idea. He said the European Parliament was on a similar wavelength to the Commission in this respect.
Possible measures for avoiding cross contamination (of conventional or organic crops with GMOs) cited by Fischler include: - deciding on isolation distances in line with the potential for self-pollination (the probability of admixture varies greatly from one crop to another; while for some crops the probability is high (eg oilseed rape) for others the probability is fairly low (eg beetroot and potatoes)); using pollen barriers such as hedges (as found in Ireland and the UK); being extremely cautious when handling seed; cleaning machinery thoroughly; using crop varieties with different flowering times and crop rotation. He also mentioned the potential for cooperation between neighbouring farms (such as information about sowing plans, use of crop varieties with differing flowering times, or growing similar crops next to each other) without banning GMOs from specific regions, noted Fischler. He also mentioned agreements between farms to protect national parks.
In terms of liability, the Commission urges Member States to consider changing insurance schemes (to avert court cases). In response to questions about proportionality, Fischler admitted that Member States may decide to restrict various areas of their territory to specific crops in order to guarantee co-existence, but he said it would not be possible for Member States to decide to ban GMOs from an entire region and restricting farmers' freedom of choice with regard to where they farmed could not be justified either. The Commissioner said this would be like having certain farmers who were popular and others who were unpopular.
In his address, Fischler said the problem of co-existence should not be used to block the authorisation of GMOs in the EU, saying it was unacceptable to continue the ban to avoid cross contamination, mentioning the complaint the United States had lodged at the WTO and adding that the EU would defend its new labelling and traceability legislation at the WTO once Member States had ended the ban on GMOs.