Opportunity knocked

17 October 2002

The European Commission has announced that the process for commercial approvals of GM food and crops in Europe is to be left to biotech companies and Member States. But Member States attending today's Council of Environment Ministers meeting in Luxemburg refused to reconsider the moratorium on commercial approvals after failing to agree legislation on labelling and traceability.

Any Member State wanting to start a new commercial approval process would have to do so under the new Deliberate Release Directive. This would take 10 to 14 months. Friends of the Earth called on Members States to introduce strict labelling and traceability rule during this period.

"The fact that Ministers did not reach agreement on a tighter labelling regime today means consumers will have to wait longer before they have a genuine chance to avoid GM in their food," said Friends of the Earth Europe GMO Campaigner Geert Retsima. "We urge Ministers to agree strict GM labelling rules as soon as possible. That will effectively establish a new moratorium because 70 per cent of consumers have expressed a desire to avoid GM in their diet. Even with tough labelling rules, major problems such as liability, seed purity and the coexistence of GM and non GM crops need to be resolved before the moratorium is lifted."

See photos at http://www.foeeurope.org/

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