Strasbourg, 17/09/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Assembly of the Regions of Europe (ARE) and the environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth Europe (FoE) launched a campaign in Strasbourg this week to protect farm crops and traditional farms from the impact of introducing new genetic technology. ARE and FoE specifically call for the establishment of binding EU legislation concerning the coexistence of both traditional and genetically modified plants.
Greens/EFA MEP Jillian Evans, who attended the launch event in support of the campaign, said that in December 2003 the European Parliament had adopted a resolution on coexistence, but once again, it had not been listened to but no doubt merited being recalled to the Commission's attention. The resolution sets out obligations for farmers with regard to the contamination of conventional and organic crops and seed with GMOs in line with the polluter pays principle. This was hailed by Geert Ritsema of FoE as a precedent at a time when the European Commission is retreating and leaving it to Member States to decide.
ARE and FoE also want legal measures to enable the regions to declare their entire region, or part of it, as a GMO-free zone, and for this to be seen as compatible with the free circulation of goods regulations. Since 1999, explained ARE Secretary General Klaus Klipp, nearly two thousand local and regional communities have declared themselves GMO-free zones in defiance of the laws of the Common Market. Klipp took advantage of the launch of this new campaign to demand biosecurity measures such as the establishment of minimum separation distances and a public register of GMOs, pointing out that seeds do not stop at borders. Research by the European Environment Agency published in 2002 revealed that contamination from genetically modified plants could occur in a 4 km radius.
An ARE guest, Vice-President of the French region of Midi-Pyrenees, Alain Fauconnier, wanted EU Member States and regions to be able to ban or restrict the use and sale of GMOs within the single market, if a heightened risk of dissemination or a negative impact on the environment were demonstrated. If there's a risk, he said, we have to impose a ban. The important thing is health and safety, urging people to remember the mad cow episode.