News analysis : MEPs vote for national GM crop bans

Individual European Union (EU) states will soon be able to ban the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops on their own territory.

Members of the European Parliament (EP) voted on Tuesday in Strasbourg by a large majority to leave the decision not to allow growing GM crops to national governments, even though their cultivation is allowed at EU level.

The rule change, informally agreed by the EP and the Council of the EU in December, was originally tabled in 2010 but was then deadlocked for four years due to disagreement between pro- and anti-GM member states.

Currently, only one GM crop, an insect-resistant maize called MON 810, is grown in the EU.

Five countries have set aside land to grow it, among which Spain is by far the biggest grower. However, other countries, including Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg and Poland, adopted 'safeguard clauses' to prohibit its cultivation on their territories.

But the problem has been that they have not been able to justify banning the crops on grounds other than those established by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which assesses risks to health and the environment. Consequently, these countries' have found their own laws overturned by national courts as being incompatible with EU law.

With the change in legislation individual states will be able to decide whether they want to ban GM crops on their own environmental policy grounds. Member states will also be able ban or restrict the crops on grounds such as town and country planning requirements, socio-economic impact, avoiding the unintended presence of GM organisms (GMOs) in other products and farm policy. Bans could also include groups of GMOs designated by crop.

Presenting the rule change, Vytenis Andriukaitis, the EU commissioner in charge of health and food safety, told MEPs on Tuesday that the current situation was unworkable. "It means that countries wishing to ban GMOs in their territory cannot do so," he said. "Therefore they are not able to take account of their national context or the views of their own citizens who elect them."

Belgian Liberal MEP Frederique Ries, who steered the proposal through the EP, added that "legislation should be decided by lawmakers, not courts".

She said the directive was in response to Europeans' growing concerns about GMOs, as shown by Eurobarometer surveys. "This directive is not about products, but only about their cultivation," she commented. "Large quantities of animal feed containing GMOs are imported into the EU. However, this was not addressed by this proposal, nor was transport or research. I think it will mainly affect transparency, reduce conflicts of interests and lead to better management."

However, there was strong vocal opposition to the directive in the EP debate. Green and left wing parties have campaigned for an outright ban on GM crops across the EU.

The Greens voted against the new scheme, claiming it would "renationalize decisions about GMO cultivation instead of reforming the risk assessment process for GMOs". After the vote, Green food safety spokesperson Bart Staes said: "This new scheme will ease the way for GMOs in Europe while failing to respond to the need to address the flawed EU procedure for authorising GMOs.

Despite a majority of EU member states and citizens being consistently opposed to GMOs, the real purpose of this new scheme is to make it easier to wave through EU authorizations of such crops. Countries opposed to GMOs are given the carrot of being able to opt-out of these authorizations but the scheme approved today fails to give them a legally-watertight basis for doing so."

Member states will also have to ensure that GM crops do not contaminate other products as well as avoid cross-border contamination with neighbouring countries.

The agreement negotiated with EU ministers was approved by 480 votes to 159, with 58 abstentions.

In total, 1.56 percent of the EU's maize-growing area is given over to MON 810.

The "Amflora" GM potato was banned by the EU General Court in 2013 after an initial green light from the European Commission.

If approved by the Council of the EU the new legislation will come into force in spring 2015. Enditem