Brussels, 20/02/2008 (Agence Europe) - As usual, the Council of the EU again failed, on 18 February, to give a verdict for or against the marketing of genetically modified organisms that the European Commission was proposing (EUROPE 9603). It will therefore be left to the latter to reach a final decision on the matter, in compliance with committee procedures in force.
There are four varieties of genetically modified maize MON 863xNK603, MON863xMON810, MON 863xMON810xNK603 from Monsanto and GA21 from Syngenta Seeds SAS), as well as a genetically modified potato from BASF (EH-527-1). In all five cases, the Council failed to obtain the required qualified majority for approving or rejecting the proposals. The European Commission was proposing that these GMOs were authorised because of the positive opinions given them by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which judged it unlikely that there would be any undesirable effects on human or animal health or on the environment.
All requests for marketing authorisation were introduced in keeping with Regulation 1829/2003/EC on genetically modified foodstuffs and animal feed. For the maize, authorisation was requested for the same use as any other maize, except for crops (authorisation was requested on 22 October 2004 for MON863xNK603, on 24 June 2004 for MON863xMON810, on 2 November 2004 for MON 863xMON810xNK603 and on 25 July 2005 for GA21).
The request for authorising the genetically modified potato was made on 28 February 2005 and involves both the marketing of animal feed from potato derived products and the accidental or technically unavoidable presence of this GMO in foodstuffs and other animal feed products. (A.N.)