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Right for national GMO bans upheld
by Redaktion (comments: 0)
The European Commission was defeated in its latest attempt to force two countries to drop bans on controversial genetically modified maize. It was the second and third time that Hungary and Austria respectively had come under attack by the European Commission for refusing to grow GM maize. Friends of the Earth has welcomed the vote. Helen Holder, European GMO campaign coordinator at Friends of the Earth Europe said: “The European Commission has once again failed to force countries to lift their national GMO bans. Today’s vote is a clear message that European countries will not be bullied into taking unsound decisions regarding their environment, their farming and their citizens’ health. The Commission must now abandon its unpopular proposals once and for all and get down to the real work of improving GMO risk assessments in the EU, as Ministers have requested.”
Under EU GMO laws, countries are allowed to ban individual GM crops for environmental and health reasons. reports Friends of the Earth Europe. There are a number of reasons why these bans should not be lifted: The effects of Monsanto’s genetically modified maize MON 810, which is engineered to produce a toxin to kill insects, are uncertain and controversial. European Environment Ministers concluded last December that GMO risk assessment in the EU is not fulfilling legal requirements, that long term impacts are not been assessed, and that crops such as those being voted on should also be assessed under EU pesticide laws because of the toxin they release. The European Commission’s proposal to lift the bans completely disregarded this recent agreement. MON810 is currently being re-assessed at EU level as required under EU law. No national bans should be lifted under a full, independent and good quality review.
Pressure has been building in the EU for GM crops to be grown. Biotech companies launched legal action in order to get more GM crops put to the vote in the EU for cultivation, whilst the pro-GMO commission president, José Manuel Barroso, set up a high level group on GMOs last summer to push member states to vote in favour of GM crops.
http://www.foeeurope.org
Under EU GMO laws, countries are allowed to ban individual GM crops for environmental and health reasons. reports Friends of the Earth Europe. There are a number of reasons why these bans should not be lifted: The effects of Monsanto’s genetically modified maize MON 810, which is engineered to produce a toxin to kill insects, are uncertain and controversial. European Environment Ministers concluded last December that GMO risk assessment in the EU is not fulfilling legal requirements, that long term impacts are not been assessed, and that crops such as those being voted on should also be assessed under EU pesticide laws because of the toxin they release. The European Commission’s proposal to lift the bans completely disregarded this recent agreement. MON810 is currently being re-assessed at EU level as required under EU law. No national bans should be lifted under a full, independent and good quality review.
Pressure has been building in the EU for GM crops to be grown. Biotech companies launched legal action in order to get more GM crops put to the vote in the EU for cultivation, whilst the pro-GMO commission president, José Manuel Barroso, set up a high level group on GMOs last summer to push member states to vote in favour of GM crops.
http://www.foeeurope.org
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Genetic Engineering
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