News and Analysis • Volume 11 • Number 6 • October 2007
EU GMO Update
Reflecting wide-spread mistrust of genetically engineered farm and food products in Europe, EU agriculture ministers on 26 September once again failed to muster the qualified majority required for the authorisation to market genetically modified organisms (GMOs) found safe by the European Food Safety Authority. The continued stalemate means that the final decision will be taken by the European Commission later this year.
The products at issue were three strains of insect-resistant and herbicide-tolerant maize. The market approval sought covered all uses except cultivation. So far, every EU-wide GMO marketing authorisation granted since the approval process resumed in 2004 has been given by the Commission after member states failed to reach a decision. Luxembourg, Greece and Austria have been among those consistently voting against GMO approvals.
In related news, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on 13 September overturned a blanket ban on the cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in Upper Austria. The decision dealt a blow to the region, which sees itself as a pioneer of GM-free farming, with broad popular support.
The European Commission had already condemned the ban in 2003, and again in 2005. The ECJ noted that Austria had not been able to refute the Commission’s argument that the ban could not be justified by new and ‘uniquely local’ scientific evidence. It also ruled that governments had no right to deprive individual farmers of the choice to grow biotech crops approved for commercial cultivation in the EU. With the ECJ’s rejection of Austria’s appeal, the region has exhausted all legal avenues to keep its total cultivation prohibition in place. However, uncontested precautionary legislation in Upper Austria will continue to make it difficult for farmers to get permission to use GM seeds and plants.