New GMOs: Blocking minority holds firm in EU test vote

After months of deadlock on the new GMOs deregulation file, a test vote by EU attachés today confirmed a continued blocking minority [1], despite multiple compromise attempts by the Polish EU presidency on the controversial patent issue. Friends of the Earth Europe welcomes this opposition and urges more Member States to reject the deregulation proposal.

Mute Schimpf, food campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe, commented:

“This Commission has made it clear it prefers putting corporate interests ahead of nature and citizens’ best interest. Deregulating new GMOs won’t benefit Europe – farmers, consumers, and the environment will pay the price just to please Bayer and its merry corporate friends. 

Instead of wasting time, we should be bringing researchers, farmers, and experts together to make farming genuinely resilient to extreme weather and better protect nature.”

Notes

• [1] Sources indicate that Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia are not supporting the deregulation of new GMO.
• Friends of the Earth Europe has recently published a series of briefings assessing the impacts of the deregulation plans for different segments of the society – from patents, labelling, risk assessments and liability. You can access them here.