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European Union GMO Policy

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Official European Union policy on genetically modified organisms stands to protect the health of consumers as well as the environment. In 1990, the first major EU order on GMO's was issued. Directive 90/220/EEC banned the deliberate release of GMO's into the environment (JO, 1990). For the next 8 years, however, this directive was amended several times to allow the production and sale of certain GMO's. This included the authorization of 18 GMO's in 1991 (Europa, 2004).

In 1998, the EU Environment Ministers Council announced a moratorium on all new GMO's. This essentially meant that no new GMO's could be authorised for sale until health and environmental consequences could be established. The moratorium was imposed, in part, because of the concerns surrounding Bt corn (Europa, 2003). It has also been charged that the moratorium was in response to big business pressure within the EU to protect the domestic agricultural market. In fact, the historical pride and partiality towards agriculture in Europe probably influenced this decision to some degree. Yet, the main reason was massive public apprehension towards GMO's and longstanding unresolved questions, such as the long-term environmental and health consequences of GMO's (Valls-Russell, 1999).

Bt corn was at the heart of this debate, and the main evidence brought against GMO's revolved around its effect on the Monarch butterfly and possible creation of ‘Super Weeds' resistant to Bt. Recently, with scientific evidence suggesting Bt has little effect on Monarch, and massive political pressure from the United States, the EU has begun to reconsider the moratorium (BBCNews, 2004). Several member states, such as Britain and Germany, proposed to lift the five year ban on Bt corn (Furlong, 2004).

In January 2004, the EU lifted its ban on a certain type of Bt corn, Bt11. This was seen as a victory for pro-GMO lobbyists and many Europeans feel the sanctioning of Bt corn will pave the way for the approval of other GMO's. Along with Bt approval came stringent labelling rules. In 1997, the EU has required the labelling of GMO's sold on the market. Beginning in April 2004, new regulations will require the labelling of all GM foods and seeds (Regulation 1829/2003) and traceability of GMO's sold on the market (Regulation 1830/2003) (Europa, 2004).

 


© Copyright 2004 Department of Biology, Davidson College, Davidson, NC 28035.
Send questions, comments and suggestions to Jim Antoon: Jiantoon@davidson.edu
This web page was produced as an assignment for an undergraduate course at Davidson College