Anti-GMO cloud hangs over debate on EU legislation

Date: 07/10/1999

By Simon Coss

THE debate surrounding the licensing procedures for new crops and seeds containing genetically modified organisms is becoming increasingly irrelevant.

As the tide of public opinion against GM products swells almost daily, it is becoming clear that whatever rules are put in place to control how biotechnology companies sell their products within the EU, very few people are likely to want to buy them.

Many small biotechnology firms are finding it difficult to attract investors as the public at large shies away from companies they see as purveyors of genetically-manipulated 'Frankenstein foods'. The situation has become so bad that one UK-based company, Axis Genetics, was forced into receivership recently as shareholder capital dried up.

But it is not just the small biotchnology firms which are feeling the sting of the anti-GMO backlash. Earlier this month, Swiss firm Novartis - one of the world's biggest seed companies - announced that it was considering selling off its biotechnology interests.

It is against this background that the EU's policymakers have been trying to decide how the 1990 EU directive (90/220), which sets out the approval and marketing procedures for GM crops and seeds, should be updated.

Until recently, all three of the Union's main institutions - the European Commission, Parliament and EU governments in the Council of Ministers - were pursuing a 'get tough' approach.

In the wake of food scares such as the 1996 BSE crisis and this year's dioxin-in-food scandal in Belgium, they know they need to show that the protection of public health is of paramount importance.

In response to the public outcry, EU environment ministers took the dramatic step in June of calling for an effective ban on the approval of any new GM plant strains until a new version of 90/220 has been agreed upon. They also insisted that the version of the new law proposed by the Commission and supported by the Parliament be strengthened further. Such a move is almost unheard of from an institution which normally waters down planned EU legislation.

But then, just when it seemed that nothing was going the biotechnology industry's way, a small glimmer of hope for the sector appeared in the shape of the new European Parliament. After June's lacklustre European election campaign, the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) ousted the Party of European Socialists (PES) as largest political group in the Parliament.

The EPP has traditionally taken a more pro-business line than the PES, and early indications suggest that it will use its new-found political clout to push for a more industry-friendly 90/220 'mark two'.

Asked if he felt the biotechnology industry had been treated unfairly in recent years, German MEP Peter Liese, who is chairman of the EPP's bioethics committee, was in no doubt. "My personal opinion is yes," he said. "I think you simply cannot compare GMOs and BSE. There is no evidence of the dangers that some people fear."

Liese is concerned that the biotechnology sector is currently being punished for mistakes made in the mad cow and dioxin scandals. He believes the Union risks drawing up a new law which could cause many companies to go out of business, but provide no firmer guarantees of public health and environmental safety than those which exist at the moment.

The biotechnology industry itself is currently keeping a very low profile, acutely aware that anti-GMO campaigners are likely to jump on any statement it makes. "What we want to see is a regulation that is workable and based on safety for all," said Paul Muys, spokesman for industry lobby EuropaBio.

Part of a survey 'Challenges for industry', p13-20.