Editorial by TraceConsult™:
- paquis & co. -
Tomorrow, on 25th June, in the round of the EU Council of Environmental Ministers, Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland and Slovenia will table a proposal that is to entitle Member States to ban GMOs on their territory that have already been approved by the EU. For the time being, the Environmental Ministers are debating, i.e. they will not yet vote on the proposal. Originally, the Netherlands were also behind this deal, but as it appears now, this Member State does not support the proposal any further. Quoting a little from the Note 11226/1/09 of 23 June 2009 from the Council to its individual delegations, besides "reasons of nature conservation and biodiversity, the delegations supporting this initiative are of the opinion that relevant socio-economic aspects could form a basis for individual Member States to prohibit or regulate the cultivation of GMOs on the whole territory, or certain defined areas, of individual Member States. However, there is currently no methodology available for defining and evaluating socio-economic criteria. Such criteria could be discussed and agreed upon ..."In order to understand all this a little better it is good to know some further background:
There is hardly ever a sufficient majority in the Council of Ministers for the approval of a new GMO variety. In the end, the decision lies with the EU Commission. As history has shown, the Commission always nods its approval. After their futile attempt in March (see eNews by TraceConsult of 02 March 2009) to revoke the national planting bans for MON810 corn in Austria and Hungary, the Commission and the Council began looking for a way out of the constant haggling.
The Netherlands, a fervent biotechnology promoter, have the following vision: If the Member States are authorized to issue their individual national planting bans then they will vote for an approval on the EU level. The Austrians, however, want self-determination. They probably cannot believe in the schizophrenic situation favored by the Dutch, that a given Member State will vote for an approval in the Council of Ministers and then turn around and issue a ban at home.
The upside to this aproach is probably that the responsibility for the approval for the planting of a GM variety is to return to the Member States, meaning they will decide on it instead of the EU Commission. A country's vote for a GMO approval on the EU level, while issuing a ban domestically, however, would be quite assailable politically.
Therefore it remains to be seen whether the Dutch reckoning will work out. Perhaps they have already figured this out on their own and have therefore withdrawn their initial support for tomorrow's proposal.
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