Brussels, 05/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 4 December, the Environment Council took a clear stance in favour of improving environmental risk assessment and procedures for authorising genetically modified organisms (GMO) in the EU - a success for the French EU Presidency, who had made this concern one of its environmental priorities during its term of office. This was to ensure the functioning of scientific expertise to better take into account the legitimate concerns relating to GMOs, in order to meet the requests made by certain member states to establish GMO-free areas, said Jean-Louis Borloo, Council President. Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, French Secretary of State for Ecology who headed the discussion, told the press she welcomed the fact that the political guidelines reached by the Council in October this year (EUROPE 9767) had been set out in unanimous conclusions reflecting the five challenges identified by the Council's ad hoc group.
The Council calls for the work of the European Food Safety Authority( EFSA) to be improved via guidelines with normative value, so that the medium and long-term effects of GMO crops on the environment may be assessed, as well as the impact on living organisms and health, particularly the impact of those with pesticide properties and those resistant to herbicides. The Council also calls for links between the EFSA and national experts to be enhanced.
On taking into account the socio-economic impact on the market of GMOs in authorisation procedures, the Council invites member states to collect and exchange all information necessary on these socio-economic factors. It gives the Commission a mandate to report to the Council and to the Parliament by June 2010 on the basis of information that member states will have provided by January 2010. This satisfies a request made by many member states within the Council's ad hoc group, a request that did not, however, meet with Commission enthusiasm as the legislation in force already takes these socio-economic aspects into account on a case by case basis.
The Council stresses the need to fix one or several Community labelling thresholds for the adventitious presence of authorised GMOS in conventional seeds. These thresholds, it underlines, should be “set at the lowest practicable, proportionate and functional levels for all economic operators”.
The Council also recognises the right of regions and local communities to establish, on a case by case basis, GMO-free zones for certain sensitive ecosystems or agri-systems.
Greenpeace welcomed this “strong message” sent by the Council and the Commission. The NGO deplores, however, that “under pressure from the United Kingdom and the Commission, ministers have failed to ensure that seeds bought and sold in the EU remain free of any GMO contamination”. (A.N./transl.jl)