The Commission discusses genetically modified corn cultivation, possible openings

Next week the college of commissioners must decide whether or not to reintroduce the authorization procedure: “All scientific guarantees have been taken” but Greenpeace: “Gaps in safety testing”

The EU Commission may give the green light next week to a new genetically modified cultivation in Europe. Wednesday the College of Commissioners will vote on the dossier of authorizing the cultivation of genetically modified corn 1507 in the EU. The European Court’s sentence at the end of September brought the case back on the EU Executive’s table. According to the judges, Brussels would have delayed the authorizing procedure of the proposal and now must provide a legal follow-up to the authorizing procedure. The procedure for authorizing corn 1507 for cultivation has been suspended since February 25th 2009, because the EU authorizing Committee was unable to express either a majority in favor, or against the proposal. If the EU Executive should decide to restart the procedure, in any case, it would be the Council who must decide whether or not to give the go ahead for cultivation.

So the vote on Wednesday is therefore an intermediate step, but is already enough to reignite the debate on GMO cultivation in Europe. If they were to decide to restart approval procedures, this would be the first GMO cultivation permitted in Europe in more than 3 years, highlights Greenpeace. According to the environmental group, Brussels is not considering the European scientists’ concern regarding the impact the cultivation could have on butterflies, moths and other pollinators, or concerning the gaps in safety testing. The 1507 corn, explains Greenpeace, is genetically modified to produce a pesticide toxin called BT and to resist a certain type of pesticide.  The environmentalists point out that in 2011the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recognized that the BT toxin could be harmful to butterflies and moths. Not only: “The European Food Safety Authority did not properly evaluate the risks associated with the tolerance of genetically modified corn to pesticides” assaults Marco Contier, Policy Director for Greenpeace Agriculture: reopening the authorization procedure “blindly,” he continues, would be a “reckless decision by the Commission, which would put the interest of biotech companies before that of public safety.”

Reassurances arrive from the Commission however: “The fact that the College of Commissioners discusses this and must make a decision on the GMO 1507 – a spokesperson explained on Thursday – means that all scientific guarantees were taken.” The text of the proposal, he added, “would not be on the desk of the Commissioners next Wednesday if all the guarantees requested by EFSA had not been given to the Commission.” The spokesperson explained that “the European agency for Food Safety had all the elements to affirm that the GMO in question meets the criteria required in the areas of food and environmental safety.”

Letizia Pascale