Brussels, 22/10/2008 (Agence Europe) - On 20 October in Luxembourg, the Environment Council held a further exchange of views on ways of improving the assessment and authorisation procedures for GMOs in an EU which increasingly stresses the environmental dimension of the assessment of long-term risks - an area which is not a privileged field of competence of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). But aside from this concern, the Council also offered the opportunity to take account of the socio-economic criteria of the authorisation process and to create "GM-free" zones to protect fragile ecosystems and certain quality crops, which were covered by the debate. "Even at the last Council, the majority of the member states took the view that the authorisation mechanism and the depth of the analysis carried out merited a review, but the messages have not been clearly passed on by certain bodies", Jean-Louis Borloo commented before the press. He is impatient for the reflection underway, both in the ad hoc working group set up within the Council last July and in the group of Sherpas set up around José Manuel Barroso, President of the Commission, to conclude.
The minister took position in favour of a reinforcement of the environmental evaluation of genetically modified plants and in favour of greater harmonisation of the practices and methods for the assessment of environmental risks, which would end the variety in the methods used by the member states (to which the EFSA currently delegates the assessment of environmental risks) and to take advantage of the most recent science. The revision of the EFSA guidelines on the subject, which has been called for by the European Commission, received the strong support of many delegations. Many member states would like to see this revision concentrate on the impact of genetically modified plants on non-target species, and on the impact of these GM plants in general, including those tolerant to herbicides or which produce insecticide molecules. All of the delegations thought that taking account of the socio-economic criteria in the authorisation process was an important yet complex issue. Some of them, however, stressed that the taking account of these criteria was in line with the legislation in force. In the absence of a precise definition of relevant socio-economic criteria, a methodological framework could be developed at EU-level, but a number of member states stated that these criteria should under no circumstances supplant scientific assessment as the main authorisation parameter. All stressed the need to respect international law, and more specifically the rules of the WTO (a point of view shared by the legal experts of the ad hoc group, who strongly believe that the evaluation of the conformity of such criteria with WTO rules can only be done on a case-by-case basis), and to avoid any development which may lead to extending the time taken for the authorisation procedures. On taking account of certain sensitive or protected areas, the delegations are divided: some of them, including the European Commission, believe that current legislation allows GM-free areas to be created on the basis of scientific elements identifying the risks. Others would prefer that under the principle of subsidiarity, the member states be free to set up GM-free areas for certain sensitive ecosystems or agrosystems. The formal conclusions will not be adopted until the Environment Council of December. (A.N./trans.fl)