Legislation news

European Food Safety Authority replies to European Commission questions related to GMO safeguard clauses

The European Commission asked the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to provide a scientific reply to questions relating to five genetically modified organisms (GMOs) subject to safeguard clauses invoked by certain Member States to restrict or prohibit their use at national level. EFSA's Panel on genetically modified organisms (GMO Panel) concluded that on the basis of current knowledge and within the scope of the specific questions asked by the European Commission, there is no reason to believe that the continued placing on the market of the five GMOs is likely to cause any adverse effects for human and animal health or the environment...
 The full text of the opinion is available on the EFSA website at: http://www.efsa.eu.int/science/gmo/gmo_opinions/1439_en.html

Commission proposes practical improvements to the way the European GMO legislative framework is implemented

Today the European Commission gave its support to an approach proposed by Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou and Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas on further steps to improve the scientific consistency and transparency for Decisions on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). The measures proposed aim to bring about practical improvements which will reassure Member States, stakeholders and the general public that Community decisions are based on high quality scientific assessments which deliver a high level of protection of human health and the environment. These improvements will be made within the existing legal framework, in compliance with EC and WTO law, and avoiding any undue delays in authorisation procedures.

In light of recent practical experience acquired with the placing on the market of GMOs, the Commission has decided that practical improvements could be made to the system to improve the scientific consistency and transparency for Decisions on GMOs and develop consensus between all interested parties. These improvements will be made within the existing legal framework, in compliance with EC and WTO law, and avoiding any undue delays in authorisation procedures.

The Commission proposes that the following practices be implemented:

    * - in the scientific evaluation phase:
    * to invite the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to liaise more fully with national scientific bodies, with a view to resolving possible diverging scientific opinions with Member States;
    * to invite EFSA to provide more detailed justification, in its opinions on individual applications, for not accepting scientific objections raised by the national competent authorities;
    * The Commission will fully exercise its regulatory competences foreseen in the basic legislation to specify the legal framework in which EFSA assessment is to be carried out;
    * to invite EFSA to clarify which specific protocols should be used by applicants to carry out scientific studies (for example regarding toxicology) demonstrating safety;
    * Applicants and EFSA will also be asked to address more explicitly potential long-term effects and bio-diversity issues in their risk assessments for the placing on the market of GMOs;
    * - in the decision-making phase:
    * The Commission will also address specific risks identified in the risk assessment or substantiated by Member States by introducing on a case by case basis additional proportionate risk management measures in draft decisions to place GMO products on the market, as appropriate; and
    * Where in the opinion of the Commission a Member State's observation raises important new scientific questions not properly or completely addressed by the EFSA opinion, the Commission may suspend the procedure and refer back the question for further consideration.

This development of the GMO authorisation process is not just the result of the Commission's internal reflections, but draws on discussions with Member States and stakeholders. The Commission will discuss its proposals with the Member States in the Council, and with EFSA, in the coming months with the objective of building greater consensus and transparency in this area of Community policy.
EUROPA - http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/498&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

EFSA favours lifting import bans on GMO imports

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has recommended lifting import bans on genetically modified organisms (GMO) which is in force in several European Union (EU) countries including Austria, it was reported on April 12, 2006. EFSA said that harmful effects to human or animal health through the five products in question were unlikely. Austria will retain the import ban, a spokesman for Austrian Environment Minister Josef Proell told Austrian APA News Agency. The spokesman said Proell, current president of the EU Council of environment ministers, was disappointed by the EFSA recommendation, saying that the European Commission (EC), which had commissioned the EFSA study, should not to allow dubious gene-modified products in the EU. The EU members voted to preserve the bans in June 2005, Proell added. Gene-modified maize types T 25, Mon810 and Bt176 are banned in Austria. The EFSA recommendation also concerns rapeseed types Ms1xRf1 and Topas 19/2, banned in other countries.
APA-ECONOMIC NEWS SERVICE

Co-existence of genetically modified, conventional and organic crops

The European Commission together with the Austrian Presidency of the Council held a conference "Co-existence of genetically modified, conventional and organic crops - freedom of choice" from 4-6 April 2006 in Vienna, Austria...
EUROPA - http://europa.eu.int/comm/agriculture/events/vienna2006/index_en.htm

Canada tops the world in biotech crop research and development

In the global game of high-tech agriculture, where 18 countries have already adopted biotech crops and another 45 are testing them, Canada is clearly a gold medal winner. According to a recent study, Canada has researched more field crops than any other country...With 49 crops already approved for commercial use, Canada's prominent role in this emerging industry is partly due to its unique position as the only country to regulate on the basis of the traits expressed and not on the basis of the method used to introduce the traits. This means that plants with novel traits may be produced by conventional breeding, mutagenesis or recombinant DNA techniques. Field trials in 2003, for example, included alfalfa, brown mustard, canola, corn, lentils, potato, safflower, sugarbeet, tobacco and wheat, some of which were non-food crops being tested for pharmaceutical production of proteins. All of these crops of course come under rigorous regulatory scrutiny from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Health Canada. Given the huge value gap between American and Canadian commercialization, Canada is clearly punching above its weight on a global scale...
COUNCIL FOR BIOTECHNOLOGY INFORMATION - http://whybiotech.ca/canada-english.asp?id=4822

French activist Bove arrested at anti-GM protest
French anti-globalisation icon Jose Bove was arrested on Thursday on the sidelines of a protest targeting the US biotech group Monsanto, his live-in companion told AFP. Around 100 members of Greenpeace and of Bove's Small Farmer's Confederation broke into a Monsanto site in Trebes, near Carcassonne in southwestern France, where they suspect the company stocks genetically-modified (GM) seeds. Bove was arrested along with a fellow activist after the protest wound up, in the centre of Trebes, by four armed officers, Ghislaine Dambrun told AFP.
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE