Brussels, 26/03/2009 (Agence Europe) - At first reading on Wednesday 25 March in Strasbourg, the European Parliament was generally in favour of the proposal for a regulation dated January 2008 aimed at revising European legislation on novelty foods and ingredients to facilitate marketing via simplified authorisation and assessment procedures, and at encouraging innovation (EUROPE 9579) - but not at any cost!
Following their rapporteur, Kartika Tamara Liotard (GUE/NGL, NL), MEPs were largely in favour of the precautionary principle (658 votes to 15 and 11 abstentions). They confirmed their firm opposition to food from cloned animals and called for specific testing methods to be perfected in order to assess the risks entailed in the use of nanotechnology for food production.
The Parliament not only hopes that foodstuffs produced from cloned animals or their descendents will be excluded from the scope of the regulation proposed but also calls on the European Commission to present new legislation with a view to banning the marketing and importation into the EU of such foods.
The Parliament has also underlined the fact that there is currently no method allowing the safety of nanofoods to be assessed. They say that nanofoods should be put through specific nanomaterial testing to assess their safety. The Parliament also believes that any food ingredient taking the form of a nanomaterial should appear clearly in the list of ingredients on the labelling of such products.
Animal welfare activists are delighted
Eurogroup for Animals, which is made up of animal welfare organisations in Europe and which is a fierce opponent to animal cloning, welcomed the Parliament's vote which confirms the terms of a resolution adopted in September 2008 (EUROPE 9732), all the more as the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) confirmed, in July 2008, the suffering inflicted on cloned animals, the NGO stresses.
The organisation also points out that European citizens have clearly expressed their opposition to the use of this technique for the production of food. According to a Eurobarometer survey conducted in July 2008, 58% of respondents considered animal cloning for food production could never be justified. (A.N./transl.jl)