Source: CORDIS News

Following a decision by European environment ministers to reject the import to the EU of Monsanto's genetically modified (GM) GT73 oilseed rape, the biotech industry has hit back at what it calls 'a lack of political coherence' in the regulatory framework for GM crops.

On 20 December, ministers in the EU Environment Council rejected the importation and feed use of GT73, which is resistant to Monsanto's own herbicide, glyphosate. Since a qualified majority could not be reached in the Council, it will now fall to the Commission to make a final decision.

According to a statement by EuropaBio, the European Association for Bioindustries, the industry is concerned by the lack of coherence between what Member States agreed when they approved the current authorisation process, and what they do when it actually comes to authorising a product.

'Despite the positive recommendations from the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA), some Member States keep voting negatively or abstain from voting,' reads the EuropaBio statement.

According to Simon Barber, director of the plant biotechnology unit for EuropaBio: 'Member States are not facing up to their responsibilities. [They] are ignoring the very laws on GM crops that they and the European Parliament have set up over the past five years.

'As long as it remains like this, Member States are denying Europe's farmers the choice to use a technology which can help them be competitive,' Mr Barber concluded.

GT73 was first planted commercially in Canada in 1996, and has since been approved in Australia, the US, Mexico, the Philippines, Korea and Japan. In the EU, oil derived from GT73 oilseed rape was approved for use in foods in 1997.