Brussels – 27 May 2003 – A report released today warns that the lack of implementation of GMO laws in accession countries could result in GMOs unapproved in the EU, flooding the EU market after accession. The report entitled: “EU Enlargement - the introduction of GMOs by the back door of EU accession?” outlines the difficulties accession countries face in trying to harmonise their laws on GMOs used in food and agriculture, with the EU patchwork of legislation that is constantly under review,
revision and expansion.

All the accession countries of Central-Eastern Europe (CEE) have now transposed all but the most recent EU GMO legislation. However, most of these countries lack any means to implement their laws on GMO authorisation and labelling. Only the Czech Republic and Hungary have state laboratories certified to detect GMOs in seed, food and feed. “What GMOs are circulating on the markets of these countries is a big unknown, as there are no monitoring programmes to check compliance,” said Iza Kruszewska, of ANPED, The Northern Alliance for Sustainability, an NGO network that released the report.

“Poland, the largest of the new Member States requires authorisation and labelling of GMOs, but has no means to enforce these requirements,” said Ela Priwieziencew, from the Polish NGO, Socio-Ecological Institute. “In early 2002, Poland authorised the import of Monsanto’s genetically engineered soybeans and (Bt) maize for use as animal feed, but to this day there is no certified laboratory to check what is really being imported and if it is labelled,” she explained. “Already in 2001, we found a soya product in Poland sold by the Polish company Santé, containing 4% genetically engineered soybeans – without any authorisation or labelling. Although we alerted the authorities, nothing was done to take these products off the market,” she added.

Despite their poor implementation, many provisions in the laws of CEE accession countries address gaps in EU law or go further than EU legislation. For instance, the GMO laws in Poland and Slovakia provide for liability. Vera Mora, from the Hungarian NGO ETK gives another example: “Hungarian legislation on GMOs allows for the creation of genetic protective zones. We must be allowed to retain this provision to protect organic and non-GM farmers in Hungary from GMO contamination.”

The Slovene GMO law provides a safeguard clause that allows Slovenia not to automatically authorise all the GMOs already approved in the EU. According to Marjana Dermelj, from the Slovene NGO Umanotera: “Where there are concerns about potential biodiversity or other impacts, the Environment Ministry can re-assess the risk of releasing the GMO – even one approved in the old EU15 - into Slovenia’s ecosystems.” However, Dermelj doubts this provision will be applied: “Seven years of legal
vacuum has created a situation where we just don’t know the extent of GMO contamination – both with EU-approved and unapproved GMOs”.

The report examines the legal status of GMOs that have been put on the market in the old EU or on the market of a pre-accession country, at the moment of accession, when the two markets merge to create a single market. Accession will create a new situation regarding existing approvals for GMO releases. Prior approvals - even if they concern the same GMO variety - should not be automatically considered valid, either in the "old" EU or in the new member states. “EU authorisations cannot be extended to the territories of new Member States by default, irrespective of whether the GMOs were approved in pre-accession countries or not. Arguably, a new approval procedure must be initiated for all GMOs", explains Thomas Schweiger, the author of the report.

"The biotech companies with the support of the US government have moved into Central and Eastern Europe in a big way, seeking to avoid the more rigorous legislative framework of the EU; most successfully in Poland - the most US-friendly new EU Member State," said Geert Ritsema of FoE
Europe, co-publisher of the report. “But, we will not allow GMOs to be introduced by the back door of EU enlargement,” concluded Ritsema.

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For more information:
Geert Ritsema, Friends of the Earth Europe, Tel: +32 2 542 0182; Mobile: + 31 6 290 05 908
Iza Kruszewska, ANPED, Tel: +44 20 8672 3454; E-mail: izak@onetel.com
Vera Mora, Tel: +36 1 411 3510; E-mail: move@okotars.hu
Marjana Dermelj, Tel: +386 1 439 7100; E-mail: marjana@umanotera.org

To see the full report, click here.

Tomorrow Friends of the Earth Europe -together with the Greens, EURO COOP and the Heinrich Boell Foundation- is organising the conference" GMOs: co-existence or contamination ?", that will be held in the European Parliament. More than 175 participants are expected, among them representatives from the retailsector, farmersorganisations, consumerunions, MEPs, Commission officials, biotech industry and environmental NGO's. For more details and the latest version of the programme, please see: http://www.foeeurope.org/GMOs/conference/home.htm

Friends of the Earth is the largest grassroots environmental network in the world 
campaigning to protect the environment and to create sustainable societies.
Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE) unites more than 30 national member groups with thousands of local groups.

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