EU Split Over GMO Rapeseed, Awaits Default Approval
Date: 21-Dec-04
Country: BELGIUM
Author: Jeremy Smith
"It will go back to the Commission now, probably in January, and the Commission has to approve it," a Commission official told reporters. The date for this will probably depend on the time needed to finalise the paperwork.
Although there was no formal vote, the ministers indicated there was no change to their known positions on GT73, which were circulated at a meeting of EU ambassadors last week.
Then six national delegations -- Finland, France, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden and the Netherlands -- said they were in favour of approving the rapeseed, diplomats said.
Ireland, Slovenia, Spain, Germany, Britain and the Czech Republic said they would abstain. The remainder were opposed.
GT73 rapeseed is modified to resist the non-selective herbicide glyphosate and allow farmers to manage weeds more effectively. Monsanto's request is for use in animal feed and industrial processing, not for growing.
Under the EU's complex decision-making process, if EU member states fail to agree after three months at ministerial level on allowing a new GMO into the bloc, then the Commission -- the bloc's executive arm -- may rubberstamp an authorisation.
It will be the third GMO to be authorised since the EU restarted approving new GMO products for import in May 2004, ending a de facto biotech moratorium that began in 1998.
Since 1998 all avenues have been explored to find a consensus among states opposed to gene crops and those in favour, leaving the executive to decide.
But the EU has not yet touched the more contentious issue of allowing new GMO crops to planted in Europe's fields -- the test of whether the bloc's biotech ban is really over -- and just a handful of GMO crops have won EU approval for growing.
