Pressure rises for tougher GMO rules

Date: 10/04/1997

AGRICULTURE Commissioner Franz Fischler will shortly propose compulsory labelling for all genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) used in animal feed and a ban on mixing conventional products with GMOs.

This would go further than the measures adopted by the European Commission last week, which foresee a label for new products released into the environment which “may contain” GMOs.

Fischler's proposals, to be discussed by the full Commission in the coming weeks, are certain to be fiercely opposed by industry. And with the Commissioner keen to involve the European Parliament in any decision, a final ruling looks set to be a long time coming.

MEPs turned up the heat in the increasingly complex GMO debate this week by passing a resolution demanding that the Commission suspend the authorisation of Ciba-Geigy's disputed GM maize until the scientific evidence has been reconsidered.

Commission officials denied vehemently that the decision to authorise the product had been based on anything other than an exhaustive examination of all the data available and insisted that the Commission had acted entirely correctly under the existing legal provisions.

“It is completely wrong to say that trade considerations came first. Our primary concern was food safety and consumer health,” said a spokesman for Environment Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that the Commission is working on amendments to the general directive on food labelling which would allow gene-altered soya beans and maize to be labelled in line with requirements due to come into force under the Novel Foods Regulation in May.