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THIRD WORLD NETWORK BIOSAFETY INFORMATION SERVICE 29 June 2005
RE: EU Votes to Keep Safety Bans We wish to bring to your attention that environment ministers in Europe on Friday (24 June) voted to allow countries to uphold their safety bans on specific GMOs already authorized in the EU. Five countries had invoked national safeguard measures, as allowed for under EU legislation, to ban the GMOs. The ministers rejected by a qualified majority all proposals by the European Commission to lift the bans in Austria, Luxembourg, France, Greece and Germany. This is the first time a qualified majority has been achieved against a Commission proposal on GMOs. At the same time, the ministers failed to agree on authorizing another Monsanto maize known as MON 863, modified to resist the corn rootworm insect and which caused unexplained kidney damage to rats, according to research conducted by the its manufacturer.
Chee Yoke Heong and Lim Li
Ching REF: Doc.TWN/Biosafety/2005/F FRIENDS OF THE EARTH EUROPE PRESS RELEASE For immediate release: FRIDAY 24 JUNE 2005 CONTACT: Adrian Bebb GM Campaigner +49 1609 490 1163 ********************************************************* Luxembourg 24 June 2005 - Environment Ministers from across Europe today voted to allow countries to keep their safety bans on genetically modified (GM) foods. The Ministers rejected by a qualified majority all the proposals by the European Commission to lift the bans in Austria, Luxembourg, France, Greece and Germany. The Commission's move follows a dispute over GM foods at the World Trade Organisation, where the United States is claiming national bans are a barrier to trade. Over 70% of the European public are against GM foods. The Ministers however failed to reach the qualified majority required to prevent approval of another GM maize - referred to as MON 863 - which caused unexplained kidney damage to rats, according to research conducted by the manufacturer, biotech giant Monsanto. Monsanto has refused to release all the results of its own test on this GM food. Adrian Bebb, GMO Campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe said: "The European Commission asked for more guidance from the member states and they got it. Countries today have demanded the sovereign right to ban genetically modified crops if there are questions over their safety. The Commission now faces a test of credibility - will it listen to national governments and the public, or carry on with its unpopular policy of pushing GM foods and crops into Europe? It is time to reconnect with the public and protect them from unwanted GM foods and crops." Since 1997, five EU countries have banned various GM crops on safety grounds. (1) The Commission asked all EU member states to vote on proposals requiring the five countries to lift their bans within 20 days.(2) Ministers today voted overwhelmingly to allow these bans to remain. The Commission's proposals are seen as a direct result of the trade dispute in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that was started in 2003 by the United States, Argentina and Canada. These countries, all big producers of GM crops, claim that Europe's precautionary stance on GM food, including the national bans, are a barrier to free trade and harm their farmers. The WTO is expected to deliver an interim ruling in August. Today's vote also questions the credibility of the European Food Standards Agency (EFSA). Last year the EFSA claimed the national bans had no scientific basis - a view rejected today by member states. Friends of the Earth, who have been deeply critical of EFSA's pro-biotech position and their close links with the GMO industry, today called for a major review into the independence and scientific standards of the EFSA. (3) FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Adrian Bebb GM Campaigner Friends of the Earth Europe +49 1609 490 1163 NOTES (1) Friends of the Earth briefings and a cyber action urging Ministers to reject the Commission proposals are available at http://www.foeeurope.org/ban_risky_gm_food/index.php (2) The Commission proposals can be found at: www.foodlaw.rdg.ac.uk/news/eu-05037.htm (3) The Friends of the Earth report: Throwing Caution to the Wind can be downloaded at: http://www.foeeurope.org/GMOs/publications/EFSAreport.pdf The national bans are: Germany France Austria Syngenta's Bt176 maize (banned 13/02/1997) - Reason: effects on non-target insects such as butterflies + transfer of antibiotic resistance genes to humans and animals Bayer's T25 maize (banned 28/4/2000) - Reason: protection of sensitive areas, lack of monitoring plan and concerns about the herbicide used Monsanto's MON810 maize (banned 10/06/1999) - Reason: Effects on non-target insects Luxembourg Greece
June 24, 2005 EU Ministers Uphold Sovereign Right to Ban GMOs By REUTERS Filed at 11:49 a.m. ET LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - EU environment ministers dealt a blow on Friday to efforts to get more GMO crops grown in Europe as they agreed to uphold eight national bans on genetically modified maize and rapeseed types. The vote was a sharp rebuff for the European Union's executive Commission, which had wanted the ministers to endorse an order to lift the bans within 20 days. EU law provides for national GMO bans if the government can justify the prohibition. It also played into the hands of the United States, Canada and Argentina, whose suit against the European Union at the World Trade Organization alleges that EU biotech policy harms trade and is not founded on science. The EU's 1998-2004 biotech ban, they say, was illegal. The WTO is now expected to issue its initial ruling on the GMO case in early October, postponed from August, officials say. ``A very large majority, 22 member states, rejected proposals to lift these national bans. We were able to give a clear message to the European Commission,'' Luxembourg Environment Minister Lucien Lux told a news conference. It was the EU's first agreement on GMO policy since 1998, when the bloc began its unofficial moratorium on approving new GMO foods and crops -- lifted last year by a legal default. Between 1997 and 2000, Austria, France, Germany, Greece and Luxembourg banned specific GMOs on their territory, focusing on three maize and two rapeseed types approved shortly before the start of the EU moratorium. For the Commission, the votes were a setback, especially in its WTO defense, but it was still ``business as usual.'' The EU executive now has several options, including returning to the ministers with the same proposals for lifting the bans, though at a later date, or changing them radically. ``The EU is under considerable pressure at the WTO, and not only due to the lack of action (on national GMO bans) in previous years. And further delays would weaken our position at the WTO,'' EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said. ``This does not call our regulatory framework into question...(which) is the strictest in the world. We are going to apply the existing framework and we are obliged to do so.'' Ironically, on the same day that the EU's Official Journal issued an authorization for a GMO rapeseed, made by Monsanto, it was forced to revoke it due to a bureaucratic error. The authorization, for GT73 rapeseed made by U. S. biotech giant Monsanto, will probably be issued in a few weeks. GREENS ECSTATIC, INDUSTRY ANGRY Spain was the only country to uphold all eight bans, despite the fact that its farmers grow one of the maize types, the Bt-176 strain made by Swiss biotech giant Syngenta . Spain is one of the few countries that grows GMO crops extensively in Europe, where much of the public view them as ``Frankenstein'' foods despite industry assurances they are safe. Green groups were ecstatic that the EU had finally agreed to slap down not just one of the national bans, but all eight. ``The European Commission asked for more guidance from the member states and they got it,'' said Adrian Bebb, GMO campaigner at environmental lobby group Friends of the Earth Europe. ``Countries today have demanded the sovereign right to ban genetically modified crops if there are questions over their safety,'' he said in a statement. Apart from the Bt-176 strain, the other maize types were MON 810, made by Monsanto, and Bayer's T25 maize. There are also two rapeseed types, both made by Bayer. But Europe's biotech industry was incensed by the decisions. ``Today's vote is another failure of member states to play by the rules that they themselves established. The EU's approval process for safe GMOs is arguably the strictest in the world and these bans are not scientifically justifiable,'' said Simon Barber at European biotech industry association EuropaBio. GMO DEADLOCK ELSEWHERE Even though the EU has now lifted its six-year unofficial moratorium on approving new GMO products, national governments have consistently clashed over biotech policy. The EU's member states have now ended meetings in deadlock 14 times in a row on whether to approve new GMO products, usually for use in industrial processing or as animal feed. The latest occasion was also on Wednesday, when the ministers failed to agree on authorizing another Monsanto maize known as MON 863, modified to resist the corn rootworm insect. The Commission will now take up the dossier and most likely issue a rubberstamp authorization in the next few months, officials say. This process kicks in when EU ministers fail to agree after three months on whether to authorize a GMO or not. Monsanto's requested use was for processing into animal feed, not for growing or for consumption as human food.
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