French GMO foes claim victory after EU Summit.
Date: 28-Jun-99
Country: France
Ministers avoided using the word moratorium but established a de facto halt to new GM crop approvals until a new law on licensing was in place.
They also agreed tighter regulations on labelling GM crops and tracking them through the food chain.
"For me, this means we have obtained a moratorium until at least 2002," said Arnaud Apoteker of Greenpeace France.
"My only regret is that this was not a unanimous decision by ministers, which means it may weaken the EU's position in the face of U.S. opposition," Apoteker said, noting the mounting pressure from Washington on the EU to open its market to transgenic crops grown by U.S. farmers.
Apoteker said the meeting showed the EU was standing up for its own consumers, who have expressed far more scepticism about GM crops than have their American counterparts.
"This is not a question of government protectionism. This is a question of public opinion, and the U.S. authorities have to realise that," he said.
Stephen Kerckhove of environmental group Agir pour l'Environment said EU ministers did not go far enough.
"This is only a two-year suspension and we are still demanding a five-year moratorium," he said.
Kerckhove said it was futile for the EU to talk about setting GM labelling standards while ways of separating GM and non-GM crops had yet to be worked out.
"You need to work out how you can ship a cargo of GM-free soya without it being contaminated by a cargo of GM soyabeans on the same vessel," he said.
A spokeswoman for farm union FNSEA welcomed the decision to introduce a labelling system for GMO foods but worried about foods grown outside the bloc.
"It is important that all products be treated the same way, whether from the EU or imported. Otherwise, the system could undermine the competitiveness of domestic foods," she said.
