Biotech Updates

EC Publishes Recommendations on GMO Coexistence

July 23, 2010

The European Commission has released general principles for developing national measures to avoid the unintended presence of GMOs in conventional and organic crops. The none-binding recommendations were published in the Official Journal on July 22, 2010. The general principles include the following items:
  • Transparency, cross-border cooperation and stakeholder involvement
  • Proportionality
  • Levels of admixture to be attained through national co-existence measures to avoid the unintended presence of GMOs in conventional and organic crops
  • Measures to exclude GMO cultivation from large areas (‘GM-free areas')
  • Liability rules

The recommendations allow flexibility for Member States to consider regional and national specificities and the particular local needs of conventional, organic and other types of crops and products.

Details of the principles are available at http://euroalert.net/en/news.aspx?idn=10126