EU states cannot ban GM animal feed
Parliament rejects plan to allow countries to ban previously-approved farm feeds
THE European Parliament has rejected a proposal from the Commission which would have allowed Member States to refuse genetically modified animal feed into their territory.
The proposal would have allowed countries to ban feed grains, pellets etc even if they had previously been cleared at European level.
It was defeated by a substantial majority of 579 votes against, 106 for and five abstentions.
While the European Parliament agreed in January that Member States could ban the cultivation of GM crops, MEPs considered that banning the products would be a step back for the single market and could lead to the reintroduction of border controls.
The Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis, said that the Commission had put forward the proposal because EU countries could not come up with a common position on GM crops and cultures.
Mr Andriukaitis said the current rules were creating “a sense of democratic deficit” as Member States were abstaining on decisions for political reasons, forcing the Commission to step in.
Currently, a GM product can only enter the market with the approval of the European Food Safety Authority and a qualified majority vote by Member States. (The European Parliament does not vote on this decision).
If a qualified majority vote by representatives of Member States is not met, the decision falls to the European Commission.
As EU countries were abstaining for national political expediency, the Commission had been forced to make the decision on 67 occasions, giving the impression that it was not a democratic decision, said the Commissioner.
The proposal to allow individual countries to block products that had been previously approved at European level was heavily criticised by the US which wants to see a total opening of the market as part of its trade negotiation with the EU (TTIP).
The Commission says more than 60% of the vegetable protein in animal feed in Europe is imported from non-EU countries where GM material is widespread.
