|  When
the revised Deliberate
Release Directive was adopted by the European Parliament
in February 2001, several Member States reaffirmed their intention
to maintain the Moratorium on GMO
approvals until new provisions were in place to ensure traceability
and labelling of GMOs and GMO derivatives. Some Member States
have even said that the question of liability should also be
addressed before more GMOs enter the market place.
Although
the new Directive 2001/18/EC requires EU Member States to ensure
traceability of GMOs at all stages of placing on the market,
it does not itself provide the legal basis to do so. The European
Commission, therefore, had to propose new legislation in this
regard. Although this was originally promised for March 2001,
it was July 2001 when the Commission finally presented its Proposal
for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council
concerning traceability and labelling of genetically modified
organisms and traceability of food and feed products produced
from genetically modified organisms (COM(2001) 182).
The purpose
of the Regulation is to ensure traceability of GMOs from operator
to operator in order to facilitate comprehensive labelling of
GMOs, and to put a system in place which would enable withdrawal
of GMOs from the market should problems such as harm to the
environment or human health occur.
The final
version of the Proposal is somewhat better than earlier draft
texts which contained worrying provisions such as allowing for
the 'adventitious' presence of GMOs authorised in third countries
(such as the United States and Canada). However, the Commission's
final proposal is nevertheless considered by some as a concession
to the biotech industry in that it effectively 'legalises' contamination
by unapproved GMOs by setting a threshold of 1% for the 'adventitious'
or 'technically unavoidable' presence of GMOs. The Commission's
argument for this concession is that this would only be permissible
if the unapproved GMOs "have been subject to a scientific
risk assessment made by the relevant Scientific Committee(s)
or the European Food Authority". In other words, if, for
example, the EU's Scientific Committee on Plants has deemed
a GMO to be safe, the presence of that GMO would be tolerated
regardless of the fact that it has not been authorised under
EU legislation. The proposed 1% contamination threshold, therefore,
would allow unapproved GMOs to be present and to enter the food
chain. In addition, GMOs which would be tolerated under this
concession would not have to be labelled either.
Furthermore,
the Proposal requires the amendment of the new Deliberate Release
Directive which stipulates that thresholds for 'adventitious'
or technically unavoidable' presence should only be allowed
for authorised GMOs, and that any releases of unauthorised GMOs
should be terminated. Thus, the adoption of the proposed Traceability/Labelling
Regulation, in its current form, would weaken the new Deliberate
Release Directive which only entered into force in April 2001
and must be transposed into the legislation of EU Member States
by 17th October 2002.
FoE's
assessment of the Traceability & Labelling proposal
On the positive side:
- The EU
would have a traceability system that ensures, in theory,
that GMOs can be identified and labelled throughout the food
and feed chain;
- The
traceability regime would facilitate monitoring of health
and environment effects of GMOs and the withdrawal of harmful
products.
On the negative
side:
- complete
traceability from operator to operator is restricted to GMOs
not used for food, feed or processing - it would, in fact,
only apply to live GMOs, i.e. seeds;
- medicinal
products for human or veterinary use are not included in the
scope of the proposed Regulation, leaving open the issue of
traceability of GM plants grown for the production of pharmaceuticals;
- animal
products such as meat, milk and eggs from animals fed on GMOs
are also excluded from traceability;
- the
Proposal does not cover traceability of non-food GMO derivatives,
although several GM plants are intended for non-food uses
such as oilseed rape (fuel), cotton (fibre) and tobacco;
- traceability
is dependent on the assignment of unique identifying codes
which have not even been developed yet;
- exemptions
from the Regulation are made for the 'adventitious' or 'technically
unavoidable' presence of GMOs not authorised for market release
under the Deliberate Release Directive up to a threshold of
1% (The exemptions are made by reference in this Proposal
to the parallel GM Food/Feed Proposal, Article 42 of which
foresees the amendment of Directive 2001/18/EC).
How did Parliament vote ?
On 3th July
2002, the European Parliament adopted important amendments in
support of the Traceability and Labelling proposal. Moreover,
the Parliament adopted some important amendments that strenghten
the Commissions proposal and that pave the way for new legislation
to give consumers and farmers the ability to avoid GMOs if they
choose.
1) In favour
of full traceability and labelling of foods derived from GM
crops.
While
under current EU law only a small minority of food products
derived from GMOs have to be labelled, the Members of the
European Parliament (MEPs) voted for labelling of all food,
produced from GMOs, also if no transgene DNA or protein is
detectable in the final product.
2) In favour
of labelling of genetically modified animal feed.
MEPs voted
in favour of genetically modified (GM) animal feed being labelled.
At present they are not.
3) Against
contamination by unapproved GMOs
The Commission
had earlier proposed that GMOs that have not yet been approved
in the EU should be allowed into human and animal food up
to a level of 1 %. The Parliament has rejected this proposal.
4) In favour
of a lower threshold of contamination
The Parliament
voted that foods or feeds which are contaminated with approved
GMOs up to a level of 0.5% would not have to be labelled,
whereas the Commission proposes a 1 % threshold. Friends of
the Earth believes that contamination is unacceptable and
that any threshold should be as low as testing technology
allows, which is currently 0.1%.
5) Against
a ‘GMO-free’ label
The biotech
industry is pushing for a GMO-free label. This would increase
the cost of GM-free food making consumers pay more for something
they have always had previously. This was not supported by
the Parliament.
What’s next ?
On 17 th
October the Council of Environmental EU ministers will meet
in Luxembourg and vote about the Traceability and Labelling
proposal. He draft proposal that is currently circulating follows
the position of the Parliament on the points 1,2 and 5, but
has reintroduced some important exemptions to the rule that
all food and animal feed produced from GMOs will be labelled.
In the draft
decision it is suggested that the threshold for authorised GMOs
should rise again to 1%. The European Parliament in July lowered
the threshold to 0.5 %. Also, a new article 12 a is introduced,
in which it is suggested to allow for three years up to a level
of 1 % the ‘adventitious presence’ of non-authorised GMOs in
food and feedproducts, without even labelling. This article
goes against the wish of the Parliament, that has expressed
with a comfortable majority of 308 votes that it rejects the
presence of non-authorised GMOs. Allowing unauthorised GMOs
up to a threshold of 1% would in practice mean that one out
of every hundred tomatoes could be transgenic, without be being
approved, nor labelled.
Such a proposal
is unacceptable for Friends of the Earth, since it would not
guarantuee consumers freedom of choice, and also it would mean
that GMOs could spread in the environment and the foodchain,
without being traceable.
Friends of the Earth has made a strong appeal to the Council
to reject the re-introduction of a threshold for unauthorised
GMOs. Additionally, Friends of the Earth believes that the threshold
for unauthorised GMOs should be set at the lowestv detecteable
level (currently 0.1%). For more information about Friends of
the Earths position: see the petition to the EU ministers.
Find the legislation
Proposal
for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council
concerning traceability and labelling of genetically modified
organisms and traceability of food and feed products produced
from genetically modified organisms and amending Directive 2001/18/EC
/* COM/2001/0182 final - COD 2001/0180 */ Official Journal C
304 E , 30/10/2001 P. 0327 - 0330
http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/gmo/gmo_legi_authorise_en.html
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