Towards a Meaningful Moratorium on GMO s.

• Author: Emmott, Steve
• Position: European Union

"Taking account of the uncertainties arising from the release of transgenic plants into the environment which, like oilseed rape, carry risks of out-crossing with other species, we have decided...to apply a moratorium on all market approvals for two years in respect of each such genetically modified variety."

Lionel Jospin, Prime Minister of France, July 30, 1998

"The industry has also made the important commitment that no insect resistant GM crops will be introduced into the UK for the next three years."

UK Environment Minister Michael Meacher, October 21, 1998 to House of Lords Select Committee

Austria and Luxembourg have banned the use or sale of the Novartis Bt maize (which is engineered three ways to make it herbicide and antibiotic-resistant as well as poisonous to insects). For over 18 months the European Commission has been unable to collect enough support to overturn the bans and the Environment Committee has also recommended leaving them alone. Greece has used the same procedure to ban import and marketing of a genetically altered strain of rapeseed developed by Germany's AgrEvo.

In a separate development in France, Green-peace and ECOROPA obtained an injunction against further cultivation of the Novartis maize and a ruling that the harvest had to be put under lock and key until the issue was resolved.

Although the UK position is not quite as convincing as it looks--there are no current proposals to grow Bt crops in Britain--5 of the 15 EU member states are now taking action to clearly limit GMO releases. If you add to that the traditional reluctance of Sweden and Denmark to sanction GMOs, and the existence of Green Environment Ministers in Finland and Italy, it is no wonder the Commission is nervous. One more big name on the list would produce an overwhelming majority in favor of rethinking the whole business. Coincidentally, at just about the same time, the German Greens were elected as junior partners in their federal government and now hold the Environment and Health portfolios as well as Foreign (including EU) Affairs! What's more, the political direction of the EU, which is guided by the Council Presidency, passed by rotation from Austria to Germany at the end of 1998 and, will then pass on to Finland in July 1999.

What would have been unthinkable a few months ago--an EU-wide moratorium on GMO releases--is now a serious possibility and the climate has never been better.

What are the obstacles? The first, of course, is the...