Brussels, Belgium
November 23, 2008
Source:
GMO Compass
The EU Council of Agricultural
Ministers was not able to come to a decision on the
authorisation of the GM RoundupReady2 soybean (89788). Now it is
expected that the EU Commission will give the green light for
the import of this new soybean.
Voting in the Council of Ministers mirrored voting in the
Standing Committee: there was no qualified majority of Member
States either for or against authorisation of the RoundupReady2
soybean. Germany abstained, as did France and Italy. Voting for
the authorisation were Great Britain, Spain, Sweden, the
Netherlands and Finland. As per EU regulations, it is now up to
the EU Commission to decide. It had already announced that it
would approve the import of the new GM soybean as well as food
and feed products derived from it. This decision was based on
the risk evaluation carried out by the European Food Safety
Authority (EFSA).
The second-generation herbicide-resistant soybean, developed by
Monsanto, is due for large-scale cultivation in the US from
2009. A quick market penetration is expected since the new
variety gives significantly higher yields than the RoundupReady
soybean, which has been in use since 1996. It is estimated that
some 2.5 million hectares of RoundupReady2 soybeans will be
cultivated in 2010. Future soy imports from the US will thus
contain a certain proportion of the new GM soybean.
The pending import authorisation will also allow up to 0.9
percent of accidental, technically unavoidable admixtures of
RoundupReady2 soybeans in food and feed in the EU without
labelling. |
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