EU governments agree new GM crop import and label rules
Date: 11-Dec-02
Country: EU
Author: Robin Pomeroy
"We can now give consumers a choice between products that contain GMOs and those that don't," Danish Environment Minister Hans Christian Schmidt said at the end of a meeting of EU ministers in Brussels.
Denmark currently holds the rotating EU presidency.
"We have got a majority in favour of a solution...The result is very important for Europe. It gives the possibility to industry to use GMOs for the benefit of all," Schmidt said in a meeting beamed to journalists by closed circuit TV.
The new rules require ships carrying bulk grain to detail exactly what GM products, if any, the shipments contain. The regulation now requires approval by the European Parliament.
The EU has had a virtual ban on most GM crops since 1999 when a large minority of EU states vowed not to authorise any new GM crops for use in the bloc, pending tougher rules on what the media was calling "Frankenstein foods".
The United States said the ban was illegal, dismissing European fears of possible future environmental and health risks.
The cabinet of U.S.President George W. Bush is considering launching a World Trade Organisation case against the EU, a high-level U.S. official said last week.
BRITAIN, NETHERLANDS VOTE AGAINST
The new rules will require GM shipments to carry a code number which identifies the origin of the crops, enabling products to be withdrawn from the food chain if problems arise.
Britain and the Netherlands voted against the rules, saying they would prove too costly for bulk shippers as some mixing of GM and non-GM grain is inevitable.
They wanted shipments to be labled "may contain GMOs" without the need for an exact list of the crops on board, but they were outvoted.
Environmental group Greenpeace was pleased with the agreement.
"An overwhelming majority of ministers have saved the traceability system which was under threat," Greenpeace campaigner Lorenzo Consoli said.
Anti GM-campaigners say even if GMOs - plants or animals whose gene sequence has been spliced with that of other species - show no immediate health risks, they might cross breed with conventional plants or wild relatives.
The new rules are meant to ensure that GMOs can be traced "from farm to fork" and removed from the food chain if any health or environmental problems emerge.
Monday's text and an agreement by EU farm ministers last week which set a 0.9 percent threshold below which traces of GM matter in non-GM crops would not need to be labelled, now pass to the European Parliament to be approved or rejected.
