Move to bolster confidence in GMO policy

Date: 08/06/2000

By Renée Cordes

THE European Commission is set to unveil a short-term strategy for boosting public confidence in the Union's approach to products containing genetically modified organisms next week, amid continuing uncertainty about future regulations to govern the sector.

Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne and his environment counterpart Margot Wallström will call for measures to encourage better communication between national and EU authorities on GMO approvals, and stricter labelling requirements. The move is aimed both at ensuring the safety of new products on the market and allowing consumers to make informed choices about what to buy.

Pressure is mounting on the Commission to take a more pro-active role in protecting consumers as negotiations continue on planned new Union rules to govern the way applications for licences for new GM products are dealt with.

The EU executive's move comes amid growing concern that the revised legislation to govern the deliberate release of GMOs into the environment will not be implemented until the first half of 2002.

Planned changes to the directive known as 90/220 have been approved by EU governments, but they have yet to reach agreement with the European Parliament on the final shape of the new legislation.

Earlier this year, MEPs approved amendments to the proposal which would require governments to share any new information about GMOs with the public. The Parliament also called on the Commission to come forward with promised plans for a new scheme to make companies in all sectors of industry liable for environmental damage by 2001.

UK Socialist MEP David Bowe, the Parliament's rapporteur on the issue, said this week that conciliation talks on 90/220 were unlikely to begin until September because of the large number of issues currently being tackled in such negotiations.

"Now we have a bit of a vacuum and no one dares to take the lead," said a top Commission official, emphasising that next week's debate by the full College on the Byrne/Wallström plan was just the first step in the long process of rethinking the institution's approach to GMOs in general. "We have to see what we can do to increase confidence, not in GMOs per se, but in the authorisation process and how we can guarantee that consumers can have a choice," he added.

Among the measures to be proposed by Byrne and Wallström will be efforts to improve communications on new GM authorisations between EU governments, on the one hand, and between member states and the Commission, on the other. Commission officials said this might simply involve putting reports about notifications and field trials on the Internet.

The two Commissioners will also stress the need to clarify existing rules governing the GMO labelling and traceability.

The European Commission is set to unveil a short-term strategy for boosting public confidence in the Union's approach to products containing genetically modified organisms, amid continuing uncertainty about future regulations to govern the sector.