Fischer Boel backtracks over EU-wide GM crop legislation

By Anna McLauchlin

Date: 30/06/05

EU legislation on the co-existence of genetically modified organisms (GMO) with conventional crops is looking increasingly unlikely, according to sources. Having opened the door to pan-EU rules on the issue earlier this year, Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel now appears to be changing her mind.

Fischer Boel's predecessor Franz Fischler shied away from presenting an EU law on how far apart farmers would have to plant GM crops to avoid contamination of conventional crops. But in January the Danish commissioner said that she was in favour of such EU rules, pointing to a report on GM planting regulations that will be completed by the end of 2005. Austria, which takes over the EU presidency in January 2006, will hold a conference next spring to discuss how the European Commission will move forward.

While this is still the official line, behind the scenes in both the Commission's agriculture and environment departments, binding legislation is seen as unlikely. "What I hear is that that there is not much interest in issuing strict legislation," said one official.

"It's true that we were keen to have something more legislative but now we have to wait and see," said another. "Certainly it would be impossible to have a one-size-fits-all approach, but there could be a framework that member states could pick and choose from."

In a speech to the Committee of the Regions on Monday (27 June), Fischer Boel said that the different conditions across the EU speak in favour of "leaving the member states the possibility to develop national co-existence strategies under their own authority".

But the problem of cross-contamination between GM and non-GM crops is unlikely to go away. Without pan-EU regulation, anti-GM campaigners argue that differing standards across Europe will eventually lead to a situation where nothing will be GM-free.

"We need EU-wide standards because each country is bringing in its own rules, some weaker than others," said Adrian Bebb, GM campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe. "Given how food travels around Europe, something will have to be done."

But Simon Barber from biotech association Europabio said that there had been a lot of scaremongering over the issue. "We would hope that member states would be left to make their own rules on how they regulate," he said.

The Commission is already gearing up for what one official called "interesting discussions" about how it approves GMOs in the next few weeks. Last Friday (24 June), member states sent a strong message that they wanted to keep their own jurisdiction over GMOs when they rejected its proposal to lift national bans on GM maize and oilseed rape.

The anti-GM camp has been further strengthened by a decision by a German court to force US biotech giant Monsanto to publish a study on one of its GM products, the Mon863, which found that the product is harmful to rats. Ministers failed to reach a decision on whether to approve Mon863 and the Commission must now take the next step.

The EU executive is caught between member states, divided on the wisdom of approving GMOs, and the US, which is leading a coalition pursuing a World Trade Organization (WTO) case against the EU for blocking imports of GM crops.

A spokesman for the US mission to the EU said that Friday's decision was "further evidence that the EU's legal structure for regulating biotechnical products is badly broken and driven much more by politics than by science. These problems were at the crux of what we have argued in our WTO case".

An initial verdict on the case is expected in the second week in August.

Article reports on plans to prepare EU legislation on the co-existence of genetically modified organisms (GMO) with conventional crops. The feasibility of such regulation, which is aimed at the problem of cross-contamination between GM and non-GM crops is contested.