Anger as Parliament ducks GMO debate

Date: 02/07/1998

By Simon Coss

THE European Parliament's decision not to get involved in the controversy surrounding Austria and Luxembourg's decision to ban the cultivation of EU-approved biotech maize has left many MEPs stunned.

At last month's meeting of Union environment ministers, national governments postponed taking any decision on the bans to give the Parliament a chance to have its say on the matter.

But the Parliament's environment committee decided last week to recommend that the institution offer no opinion on the embargoes. “They didn't think it was important enough,” said one insider.

German Christian Democrat MEP Karl-Heinz Florenz supported the European Commission's current approach to the bans and argued there was no need for the Parliament to become embroiled in the matter. What tipped the balance at last week's committee meeting was the decision by the Socialist Group members, led by German MEP Dagmar Roth-Behrendt, to abstain in a crucial vote.

Belgian Green MEP Paul Lannoye, who lobbied hard for a full parliamentary debate, said the decision dealt a serious blow to the Parliament's credibility.

“How can Parliament expect to be taken seriously? We press constantly to be involved in key policy decisions, and the democratic right of member states to protect their citizens is certainly in this category, but we throw it all away for narrow domestic political reasons,” he said.

Lannoye claimed the two German MEPs' stand was motivated by a concern not to upset the influential biotechnology industry in the run-up to their country's general election in September.

This theme was also taken up by German Green MEP Hiltrud Breyer. “It is clear that the German Socialists have now become pro-genetic engineering. With federal elections due in September, we can see a repositioning of the SPD,” she said.

Roth-Behrendt hotly contested Breyer's interpretation of events. She argued that even if the Parliament had debated the bans, MEPs would have been able to exert little real influence over EU governments or the Commission. “We would have been able neither to support nor stop the bans. We would have only been able to delay things,” she said.

Luxembourg and Austria introduced what were supposed to be three-month temporary bans on the cultivation of maize strains containing genetically modified organisms a year ago.

The Commission argues that the embargoes contravene single market rules and should be lifted, but EU governments have consistently failed to muster the necessary majorities to take any action. If member states fail to resolve the problem by 11 September it will fall to the Commission to begin legal proceedings against the two countries.