[Pirateninfo] GM policy shift in Europe

[pcl at jpberlin.de]

GM policy shift in Europe
Agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel wants new rules for 
genetically modified crops | By Ned Stafford
Newly installed European Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer 
Boel has signaled a major shift in European Union policies toward 
genetically modified (GM) crops, telling a German newspaper last week 
that she believes the European Union should issue guidelines for 
acceptable distances between GM and non-GM crops.
Currently, the European Union leaves it up to member states to 
regulate sowing of GM crops so they do not contaminate adjacent non-
GM fields with GM pollen. Coexistence of GM and non-GM farm fields is 
so controversial in several EU nations, including Germany, that 
Fischer Boel's predecessor, Franz Fischler, simply avoided the issue.
In an interview with the daily Berliner Zeitung, Fischer Boel said 
that GM and non-GM fields must be separated to avoid GM 
contamination. However, she said: "Regulations must not be so hard 
that the producers of GM crops have no chance to come to market."
Some German political observers saw Fischer Boel's comments as a 
veiled reference to Germany's new strict GM law, which holds planters 
of GM crops liable for economic damages to adjacent non-GM fields 
even if they followed planting instructions and other regulations. 
Many GM crop supporters see the law as an indirect attempt to stop GM 
planting in Germany. The law was spearheaded by German Agriculture 
Minister Renate Künast, a member of the Green party, which is a 
junior coalition partner of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, SPD party.
Schroeder's main opposition parties, the CDU/CSU and the FDP, both 
issued statements applauding Fischer Boel's initiative while at the 
same time criticizing Künast's "ideologically conditioned go-it-
alone" law.
In an interview with The Scientist, Michael Mann, spokesman for 
Fischer Boel, acknowledged that there were issues with the new German 
law in terms of "whether it was proportional" to the legitimate needs 
of co-existence.
"We have asked for a clarification," Mann said, adding that the 
requested study will also look at current GM planting regulations in 
other EU nations.
Based on that study, expected to be completed by the end of the year, 
Fischer Boel and her fellow members on the European Commission, the 
European Union's executive body, will decide what sort of coexistence 
regulations would be feasible for Europe, Mann said.
When asked whether Fischer Boel in general supports GM crops and 
research, Mann said: "She does, if GM crops are kept separate [from 
non-GM fields]. She believes GM crops are a reality; they are with us 
and need to be properly regulated."
Christoph Then, a GM expert for Greenpeace Germany, which supported 
passage of the new German law, told The Scientist that Fischer Boel's 
comments mean that "the issue of coexistence has returned to the EU 
level."
But Then declined to speculate on the significance of her comments to 
the anti-GM crop movement. "This is a change of policy in the 
European Union, but it is too early to know what it means," he said.
Then said that however the issue develops at the European Commission 
level, Greenpeace's goal will continue to be a total moratorium on 
GMOs in Europe, especially for rapeseed and corn.
The organization will continue to push its theme that unless it can 
be definitely proven that GMOs are safe, they should be considered 
unsafe, Then said. "And with the evidence we have now, we believe 
they are not safe."
To that end, Greenpeace Europe this year plans to issue two reports, 
Then said. The first, which might be issued by late February, would 
be a concrete Europe-wide "risk assessment" of the effect of GM crops 
on non-GM fields.
The second report would be a "more abstract" study of the basic 
question of the overall safety of GM organisms. It would be designed 
to spark a major "scientific discussion" in Europe on the use of 
GMOs, Then said. "We think we need to come back to the basic 
scientific question of what we really know about the safety of GMOs," 
he said.
Links for this article
Mariann Fischer Boel
http://europa.eu.int/comm/commission_barroso/fischer-boel/index 
_en.htm 

"Obligatory standards for the gene crop farming," Berliner Zeitung, 
January 20, 2005.
http://www.BerlinOnline.de/berliner-zeitung/politik/414070.html 

N. Stafford, "GM law 'a blow for science,'" The Scientist, December 
1, 2004.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20041201/01