EU Proposes Stricter GMO Seed Approval Rules

BRUSSELS--The European Union Wednesday called for tougher rules on approving the use of genetically modified organisms, saying this was a crucial way to satisfy critics of the food technology.

The E.U.'s executive Commission wants Europe's central food safety watchdog, the European Food Safety Authority, to work more closely with national laboratories to resolve diverging scientific opinions on biotech grains.

If national governments and the watchdog agree, the Food Safety Authority will, among other things, have to justify its dismissal of safety concerns voiced by national governments. It will also have to pay closer attention in its approval decisions to the long-term effects of biotech crops and possible impact on bio-diversity. Greater "scientific consistency and transparency" in the way GMO seeds are approved for sale and use in the E.U. should serve to "reassure" governments gravely concerned about the technology, E.U. spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde told journalists.

Public distrust of biotech foods has turned into sharp criticism of a Brussels-based bureaucracy seen as welcoming untested technology into Europe to please big business, and debate has raged for years in Europe about what the English-language popular press has labeled "Frankenstein foods".

Austrian and Italian political leaders have been the most vocal in their criticism of the way the EFSA hands out approvals, despite national governments' health and environmental safety concerns. Austria, France, Germany, Greece and Luxembourg still refuse the use of some biotech grains approved by the E.U..

Big biotech companies such as Monsanto Co. (MON) (MON) and Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) (DOW) say political opposition to GMO crops is populist and panders to uninformed public opinion.

A spokeswoman at EFSA said the watchdog would have "no problem" with the measures, though she added tha strict laws leave little room for meaningful change in the way the body operates. She rejected claims the Commission's plan discredits EFSA.

"The Commission isn't doubting the science behind what we do. It is an issue of transparency. We will enhance the way we present our scientific opinions," Lucia de Luca told Dow Jones Newswires.

Scientists at Parma-based EFSA assess the risk posed to health and environment by GMO seeds based on information provided by industry and, where possible, additional data, de Luca said. Thursday, the body rejected the safety concerns of five European countries, saying that five GMO crops and foods banned in several European states pose no risk to health or nature.

EuropaBio, a European bio-industry lobby group in Brussels that represents farmers and companies such as Monsanto Co. (MON) (MON) and Bayer AG (BAY) (BAY), welcomed the Brussels call for greater transparency, which it said could quell fears about the technology. But Simon Barber, Director of the group's Plant Biotechnology Unit, said he was worried the plan may allow politicians to hold up approvals for political gain. According to Thursday's official statement, part of the Commission's plan would allow Brussels to suspend approval decisions if a member state "raises important new scientific questions not properly or completely addressed by the EFSA opinion."

"If this is used irresponsibly to politicize science then industry would have a concern about it, a real concern," Barber told Dow Jones Newswires.

Corrected April 12, 2006 10:29 ET (14:29 GMT)

The Commission's Ahrenkilde said the proposal won't result in the withdrawal from the European market of any crops or foods that have already been authorized. The EFSA will continue to play a "key role" in GMO risk assessments, she added.

Friends of the Earth Europe, an environment group that opposes the use or farming of biotech crops, said Brussels' decision to toughen up on GMOs was a welcome acknowledgment of the EFSA's industry bias.

"We welcome the Commission acknowledging there is a problem. Europe's food safety net is clearly not working and so the approvals of new genetically modified foods should be halted until the public is fully protected," said spokesman Adrian Bebb.

-By Juliane von Reppert-Bismarck, Dow Jones Newswires; +32-2-741-1487; juliane.vonreppert@dowjones.com

EuropaBio, a European bio-industry lobby group in Brussels that represents farmers and companies such as Monsanto Co. (MON) (MON) and Bayer AG (BAY) (BAY), welcomed the Brussels call for greater transparency, which it said could quell fears about the technology. But Simon Barber, Director of the group's Plant Biotechnology Unit, said he was worried the plan may allow politicians to hold up approvals for political gain.