EP committee opposes national GM import bans
The European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee has rejected a draft law that would give EU member states the power to restrict or prohibit the use of Union-approved GM food or feed on their territory.
MEPs fears that arbitrary national bans could distort competition on the EU’s single market and jeopardise the Union’s food production sectors, which are heavily dependent on imports of GM feed.
The opinion of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development was adopted by 28 votes in favour to eight against, with six abstentions in Brussels. The committee’s position will now be scrutinised by the Parliament’s Environment Committee, before the EU institution votes on the matter as a whole.
Commenting committee member Albert Dess MEP, who also drafted the opinion, said: “Today’s vote in the agriculture committee sends a clear message: the Commission’s proposal to allow member states to decide whether or not to restrict or ban the use of GM food and feed on their territory must be rejected. We have not been building the EU’s single market to let arbitrary political decisions distort it completely. The Commission’s approach is completely unrealistic.
“We have many sectors in the EU that rely to a great extent on imports of GM feed and would not be able to survive if it is banned. If we allowed this, then all animal food production in the EU would be at stake, which could make us much more dependent on food imports from third countries that do not necessarily respect our high production standards. And we certainly want to avoid this,” the German MEP added.
The Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, which the lead committee for the draft law, will adopt its position at its meeting on 12 and 13 October. It is anticipated that MEPs could then scrutinise the proposal at the 26-29 October plenary session in Strasbourg.
