Brussels, 29/11/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Monday Member States once again failed to obtain a majority for deciding on whether to allow imports into the EU of a new GMO: the MON 863 maize produced by agro-foods giant Monsanto, which has been modified to resist certain insects. This genetically modified maize was notified to the German authorities for processing human and animal feed purposes but not for cultivation purposes.
The issue was tackled in September by experts at the regulation committee for Directive 2001/18/EC who pointed out in an indicative vote that they were unable to reach a decision (EUROPE 2 September p 13). Monday's vote, requested by the Commission on the basis of a favourable recommendations by the European Food Safety Agency which affirmed that this genetically modified maize was as safe as traditional maize, confirmed the misgivings of Member States. The case will therefore be sent to the Council of Ministers, which will decide by majority qualified voting, which if it is not forthcoming, will be left to the Commission to decide on authorisation.
The Greens/EFA at the parliament, consider that the fact that the European Commission has not obtained a sufficient majority is proof of a new political divorce between the Commission and the Member States of the EU and is calling for the European Parliament to be the institution to have the final work on deciding European GMO policy. Pierre Jonckheer (Belgian Greens) said that the situation confirmed the divide between the Commission's intentions and the democratic demands of most European countries which were against GMOs. Marie Anne Isler Béguin (French Greens) said that this was the ninth consecutive time since 1998 that the European Commission was trying to get GMOs accepted in the Union, which was being strongly opposed by the Member States of the EU.
Environmental defence NGOs denounced the shortcoming in this system for allowing GMOs into the EU.
A new study, "Throwing Caution to the Wind", published on Monday by Friends of the Earth Europe criticised the EFAS for its constant positions in support of the bio-tech industries. The NGO pointed out that out of 12 opinions submitted until now by this authority responsible for assessing risks from GMOs on health and the environment, all of them had been had been positive. It also denounces the links between certain scientists on the GMO panel with the biotech industry and the EFSA's taking into account of factors other than risk to health and the environment, such as when it decided for example to evaluate the economic value of genetic markers' resistance to certain antibiotics in GMOs.
Greenpeace International reiterated its criticism of the authorisation system, which in this case, is based on "confidential information shared between Monsanto and the German government" and "insufficient investigations" on the effects of this maize on health on rats used in experiments (EUROPE). The NGO is calling on the Council to reject authorisation when it decides, "Since this product cannot, on today's evidence be qualified by experts as safe", stated Eric Gall Greenpeace policy advisor.