Death-knell set to be sounded for Union’s GM moratorium

By Karen Carstens

Date: 06/11/03

THE European Commission looks set to lift the EU's unofficial five-year-ban on most new GM products.

A Commission document widely leaked this week revealed that a test vote on authorizing imports of a type of genetically modified sweet corn - "Bt11" maize marketed by Swiss agrochemicals giant Syngenta - will probably be taken by member state officials at a committee meeting on Monday (10 November).

If approved, the decision would effectively end the EU's de facto GM moratorium, imposed by several member states, that has seen no new GM strains authorized since 1998.

The vote could be postponed until 12 December, although insiders believe Monday is more likely. "It's on the provisional agenda," an EU official said.

Green groups were however outraged by the Commission's likely intentions, claiming the vote would be taken under outmoded and less stringent legislation that did not yet incorporate new EU rules on the traceability and labelling of GMOs. These have already been approved but will not be applicable until next April.

Friends of the Earth (FOE) accused the executive of "disgraceful" behaviour.

"The Commission is caving in to US pressure and trying to ram through GM foods using outdated laws rather than protecting the interests of the public," said FOE campaigner Adrian Bebb.

"There is a big chance that these foods would get to the market unlabelled."

Major GM crop producers Argentina, Canada and the United States earlier this year took the EU to the World Trade Organization (WTO) over the ban, and demanded in August that a WTO panel investigate the matter.

Bebb said the new EU rules would subject the Bt11 maize to "more rigorous tests", and give the fledgling European Food Safety Authority a new mandate to take into account long-term effects on people, including allergic reactions.

But Simon Barber, head of plant biotechnology unit at industry association EuropaBio, said that Bt11 is already used in the EU in ordinary maize for animal feed. Moreover, he added, even under the current EU rules, canned whole GM sweet corn on supermarket shelves would have to be labelled. Only a processed product, such as corn oil, would escape labelling if the "adventitious presence" of the GM corn was below a certain threshold.

According to the Commission document, dated 20 October, a second GM product, the GA21 field corn made by US agricultural technology company Monsanto, will also go to an authorization vote in the first half of 2004.

It states that 21 applications for market authorizations are currently in the EU GM approvals pipeline, with eight products pending clearance.

Barber, meanwhile, accused Friends of the Earth of falsely branding current EU rules on GM products as inadequate.

"They suggest the safety assessments we've made in the past weren't sufficient, and that's not the case at all - they are exceedingly rigorous already," he said.

"They're just up to their usual mischief."

A leaked European Commission document implies that it is likely the EC will lift the European Union's unofficial five-year ban on most new genetically modified products.