Brussels, 22/05/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 22 May, EU Agriculture Ministers adopted conclusions calling on the European Commission to bring forward new initiatives to deal with the problem of co-existence of genetically modified, traditional and organic crops, to present new guidelines on implementing practical co-existence measures and to adopt as quickly as possible Community labelling thresholds for seeds. Only Greece abstained, being of the opinion that the Commission should present Community co-existence legislation instead of, as it is doing at the moment, allowing Member States to legislate. In its conclusions, the Council “stresses that there is need for Community guidelines” to supplement the existing Commission recommendation of 23 July 2003 (guidelines for setting up national strategies and best practice on co-existence), “while enough flexibility should be maintained for Member States and regions to tailor the measures to their needs, conditions and specific circumstances” (size of plots, division of the land climatic conditions). Member States say they should take account of the cost of co-existence measures and their technical effectiveness. The Council also writes that purity standards for seeds are “key to ensuring a sustainable approach to co-existence” and that Community labelling thresholds for seeds are necessary and that these should be set in such a way that it is in any case possible to respect the labelling threshold for the final product at the end of the food production chain. Elsewhere, it calls for particular attention to be paid to cross-border issues and for the creation of an information system between Member States.
The Council calls on the Commission to: - come forward, “as soon as possible, with Community labelling threshold levels for seeds” so that the level of these thresholds allows freedom of choice throughout the whole food production chain and not create a disproportionate burden for any group of players; - identify, in close cooperation with the Member States and stakeholders, best practice for technical segregation measures and develop guidelines for crop-specific measures, while ensuring that the crop-specific guidelines leave the necessary flexibility for Member States to take account of their regional and local factors; - intensify the use of COEX-NET to exchange information regarding crop segregation and liability measures, including cross-border problems in relation to co-existence and to discuss possible solutions should such problems be observed; - explore with Member States possible ways of minimising potential cross-border problems related to co-existence; - strengthen European research on co-existence in order to fill current knowledge gaps; study the different national civil liability systems relating to their application in case of economic damage from the admixture of GMOs in non-GM crops, and examine specific compensation and insurance schemes developed by Member States; - continue to explore, together with the Member States and in a transparent way, whether further steps towards common principles regarding co-existence should be taken.
The Council does not mention those regions which have declared themselves “GMO-free” and contents itself with calling on the Commission to “explore sustainable solutions, which are in line with Community law, for areas where agricultural structures and farming conditions are such that farm level co-existence is difficult to achieve for a given crop”.