Biotech Updates

EU Ministers Debate About GMO-Free Zones

October 24, 2008

The French European Union (EU) Presidency created an ad-hoc working group to discuss the controversy about genetically modified organisms (GMO)-free zones for sensitive areas. Environmental ministers from the European Union remain at a standstill about whether to establish these GMO-free zones. They agreed however, on the need for better long term environmental risk assessment of GMOs.

Several delegations recommended that the European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) guiding principles should be revised using safety assessments based on the latest scientific findings. Socio-economic considerations in the GMO authorization process were considered important although there was no exact definition of the criteria linked to GMOs. A suggestion was made for an EU-level methodology framework to identify and evaluate such criteria.

View the article at http://www.euractiv.com/en/environment/france-hopes-break-gmo-deadlock-december/article-176513