European Commission Call for Moratorium of Genetically Modified Crops


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The European Parliament's Environment Committee has called for a moratorium on the authorisation of all new varieties of GM crops. "European Voice", a weekly newspaper circulated throughout the European Commission in Brussels, has this week (15th - 21st October) run a story on its front page quoting relevant sources confirming that the Commission may be prepared to consider this. The paper is published by the "Economist".

The article is entitled:

"Commission hints at GMO rethink amid calls for a ban."

Here are some quotations from the article:

"....'If the Commission finds itself in a position where the Parliament and member states do not want to comply with legislation [ie existing illegal GMO bans in some member states] then we would have to seriously re-evaluate the situation,' a Commission official told European Voice this week....."

"....'The Commission is not insensitive to what is going on in the outside world', said one Bjerregaard [Environment Commissioner] aide......'The legal situation is not clear on this, but maybe we could be creative. We have been creative in the past and we certainly haven't finalised our thoughts on this.'..."

".....'This is a political move and it is totally unacceptable,' said Doris Ponzoni, spokeswoman for industry lobby Europabio.'There is a directive in place. I do not see the legality of what the environment committee has said and I don't see the legality of a moratorium'...."

[Posted by Paul Davis]