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After a four-year deadlock, MEPs back legislation that allows member states to decide on national bans on GM crops.
MEPs today (13 January) backed a controversial European Commission proposal to allow member states to make their own decision over whether to allow the cultivation of genetically-modified crops.
Under the law, which will now come into force in the spring, member states will be able to restrict or ban the cultivation of crops that contain genetically-modified organisms, even if they have been approved by the European Food Safety Authority.
The change in the law was proposed by the Commission in 2010 after some member states, including Austria, put national bans in place that were deemed to violate EU single market rules. Under the proposal, member states could ban crops that had been approved at EU level, but only under certain circumstances, including on the basis of environmental policy or economic impact as well as some health concerns.
The issue has been stalled for years because member states have been at loggerheads over the issue. There has been no qualified majority for or against GM crops, meaning new strains could not be approved for cultivation. A breakthrough was finally reached in June under the Greek presidency of the Council of Ministers.The agreement is a compromise between pro- and anti-GM countries, with an implicit understanding that the anti-GM member states now will stop blocking approval of new GM strains at EU level.
MEPs, who reached an informal deal on the proposal with the EU member states in December, backed it with 480 votes in favour, 159 against and 58 abstentions. Frédérique Ries, a liberal Belgian MEP who steered the legislation through Parliament, said the agreement would “signpost a debate which is far from over between pro- and anti-GMO positions”.
Irish MEP Lynn Boylan, a member of the far-left GUE/NGL group, said: “Opting out of GM cultivation needs to be absolutely legally watertight. Unfortunately in the legislation before us this is far from being the case. That is why we voted against this text today.”
Vytenis Andriukaits, the European commissioner for health and food safety, said after the December agreement that the aim was “to give the democratically-elected governments at least the same weight as scientific advice when it comes to important decisions concerning food and environment”.