17 october 2002
friends of the earth europe
brussels
Commission leaves GM moratorium decision
to Member States
Brussels, October 17th, 2002 -- The
European Commission today announced that the
process for commercial approvals of
genetically modified 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 now wanting to start a
new commercial approval process, would have
to do so under the new Deliberate Release
Directive (which came into force today). This
would take 10 to 14 months. Friends of the
Earth called on Members States to introduce
strict labelling and traceability rules
during this period.
Friends of the Earth Europe GMO campaigner
Geert Retsima said: “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. We
urge Ministers to agree strict GM labelling
rules as soon as possible. That will
effectively establish a new moratorium
because 70% 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 of Friends of the Earth’s call
for action on GM at :
www.foeeurope.org
NOTE:
Europe-wide opinion polls indicate that 94
per cent of the public want labelling to give
them a choice about eating GM foods, while 71
per cent reject GM food.
Geert Ritsema +31-6-290 05 908, (in
Luxembourg)
Pete Riley +44 7712 843 210 (in the UK)
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