Last night, the European Parliament, Council and Commission agreed to fully deregulate the new generation of genetically-modified organisms (new GMOs, or so-called ‘new genomic techniques’).
Mute Schimpf, food campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe, condemned this deal:
“This agreement is nothing more than an early gift for the biotech industry and a punishment for consumers, farmers and nature. It scraps safety checks, removes labelling and strips people of the right to choose, while letting big corporations cash in through patents. It looks like EU institutions are bending over backwards to please the US government with the most extreme corporate takeover imaginable.”
If this agreement turns into law, new GMOs will no longer be subject to either the EU Environmental liability directive or national liability schemes applicable to growers of GM crops. Should harm be detected ‘by chance’, corporations responsible for marketing GMOs could not be held liable.
Friends of the Earth Europe denounces this extreme scrapping of safeguards, this free-pass given to the biotech industry, and calls on ministers and EU Parliamentarians to reject this law in their upcoming EU Council and Plenary votes.
