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Europes GM moratorium to stay?

- 14 February 2001
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14 February 2001



Europe’s GM moratorium to stay?

By Isabel Davies

A BID to pave the way for the commercialisation of GM crops across Europe may be thwarted because some countries want to maintain a moratorium.

MEPs meeting in Strasbourg on Wednesday (14 February) voted in favour of a directive which gives the go-ahead for the licensing of new GM crops.

The directive tightens GM licensing, labelling and monitoring and requires the introduction of a public register with details of GM crop locations.

In theory, it means that biotechnology firms can apply for licences which would allow them to grow GM crops so long as strict controls are maintained.

But in practice a moratorium on new applications might continue because of opposition from France, Denmark, Greece, Italy and Luxembourg.

In a joint declaration, those countries said they would refuse to vote on any new approvals until issues of traceability, labelling and liability are resolved.

This could hold things up for another two years, said environmentalists.

Adrian Bebb, GM campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said he welcomed the strong position taken by other countries to prevent commercial GM growing.

It was in sharp contrast with the UK Governments cavalier approach and insistence on proceeding with large scale GM crop trials, he said.

Greenpeace said the directive was an improvement on previous legislation but would still fail to prevent “genetic pollution”.

A Greenpeace statement also voiced concern that the directive failed to ban antibiotic resistant marker genes which are used to develop some GM crops.

“While accepting the principles of traceability and labelling the Directive falls short of provisions on how they can be made operational,” it said.

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