Archived press release

Local authorities can still apply for gm-free zones

3 September 2003

An EU ruling that Upper Austria cannot declare itself a GM-free Zone will not impact on those UK local authorities that have voted to exclude GM crops from their areas, Friends of the Earth said today.

Since the launch of its GM-free Britain campaign last October, Friends of the Earth has been urging local authorities to use an EU GM Directive to prevent GM crops being grown in their areas. Under Article 19 of the Directive [1] particular geographical areas or habitats/ecological zones can be excluded from GM marketing consents, through legal conditions, on a case by case basis provided the environmental case can be made to support each application. Upper Austria's failed bid for a blanket GM ban used different regulations - EU Treaty (Article 95(5)).

At present none of the 22 applications submitted in the EU (some of which would allow GM crops to be cultivated in the UK) have been approved. Decisions on crops suitable for the UK will follow the publication of the GM Farm Scale Evaluations later in the autumn and are not expected to be progressed until these have been evaluated.

To date twelve local authorities have voted to used the Article 19 approach to get GM crops excluded from their areas - Cornwall, Somerset, South Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Shropshire, Cumbria, Warwickshire, Rydale, South Hams, York, East Riding and the Lake District National Parks Authority.

Commenting Friends of the Earth' GM-free campaigner Clare Oxborrow said:

"Unfortunately EU law does not allow areas to impose blanket bans on GM crops - but it does allow them to be banned on case by case basis. It is this approach that UK local authorities have adopted. Despite yesterday's EU opinion on the Upper Austria case there are legal routes for keeping GM out of the UK.

There is good evidence that the first generation of GM crops may lead to long-term environmental damage and contaminate conventional and organic food. The best way would be for the UK Government to vote against GM marketing applications which do not have sound supporting evidence".

Notes

[1] Deliberate Release Directive 2001/18/EC

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