GREENPEACE URGES EU TO IMPROVE ITS POSITIONS ON GE FOOD

14 December 1999

Brussels - Greenpeace today called on EU environment ministers to strengthen their negotiating positions on international rules to control genetic engineering when they attend the January 2000 Biosafety Protocol negotiations in Montreal, Canada. Environment ministers meeting in Brussels recognised that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food and agriculture must be subject to strict safety controls but failed to agree to clear rights for how countries can say no to genetically engineered (GE) food.

EU environment ministers failed to set out how countries could reject genetically engineered food and feed under international rules. “No country should receive any GE food unless they have given their explicit approval,” said Ceri Lewis of Greenpeace. “EU countries have ignored the special needs of less developed countries to have clear rights so that they don’t become the dumping ground for unwanted genetically engineered food.”

“The EU position for the Montreal negotiations must reflect more closely the concerns the European public has about GMOs,” said Lewis. “The Commission ignored these concerns at the WTO negotiations in Seattle. We now expect those EU environment ministers who go to Montreal to make sure that countries have full international rights to reject imports of all GMOs.”

The main countries exporting GMOs, the US, Canada and Argentina, together with Australia, Uruguay and Chile, object to countries having rights to reject imports of GE food as, in their opinion, this would be contrary to international trade rules.

Greenpeace warned that if the EU is not successful in making the precautionary principle the basis for all decision-making, EU and all other countries will find it difficult to reject GMOs where there is lack of full scientific certainty about the harm GMOs will cause to biodiversity, including human health.

Greenpeace also expressed disappointment that EU environment ministers did not mention the need to develop international rules on liability so that legal and financial responsibility is taken for any damage from GMOs to the environment, human health or livelihoods. Lewis said, “Rules setting out who is responsible for damage from GMOs must be a prerequisite for an international convention which covers movements of GMOs across the world. It is unacceptable for the EU to backtrack on any commitments to liability rules.”

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
- Ceri Lewis, Greenpeace Political Advisor, + 32 75 286 544
- Mika Railo, Greenpeace International Press Officer, +31 20 5249 548