Activites

• 1997/09/22 Final act published in Official Journal
• 1997/07/15 Debate in Parliament
  • T4-0371/1997 summary

    In adopting the report by Mr David Robert BOWE (PSE, UK), the European Parliament expressed the view that a new provision should be inserted in the Directive in order to utilize experience gained to establish a classification commensurate with the identified risks involved for each release of genetically modified organisms. It called for the procedures for granting authorization for releases into the environment to be fully commensurate with the category of risk in order to minimize the risk to the environment and human health. Parliament considered that 'strengthened provisions' (including the establishment of a database) by the Commission were necessary to ensure the exchange of information between Member States and that this was a pre-requisite for any new directive. It called on the Commission to ensure that there was an obligation to gather data/information during experimental releases that would enable the proper evaluation of the risks of full-scale commercial release. The internal Commission decision-making procedures should be examined with a view to making them speedier, more transparent and more democratically accountable. In this spirit, the existing provisions should be strengthened by publicly accessible data bases or registers and citizens should have the right to be consulted. Parliament called on the Commission to examine ways in which an ethical, economic and social dimension could be introduced into the decision-making procedures associated with the Directive and for rules on liability to be incorporated in the Directive on release. It believed that there must be labelling provisions for all products containing genetically modified organisms placed on the market under the provisions of the Directive. Lastly, Parliament took the view that authorizations to place GMOs on the market should be for a limited period of time and that holders of authorizations should be required to draw up a report on their experience of introducing the GMO onto the market. �

• 1997/07/02 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A4-0239/1997
• 1997/01/15 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 1996/12/10 Non-legislative basic document published
  • COM(1996)0630 summary

    OBJECTIVE: the Commission report presents the results of the review of directive 90/220/EEC on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for experimental and commercial purposes. SUBSTANCE: the Commission considers that Directive 90/220/EEC covers an area of advanced technology which is changing rapidly, which makes it necessary to update the directive regularly so that it is always in line with technological progress. Application of this directive has shown that there are problems and the Commission has made provision to adopt a proposal for amendment of the directive during 1997, chiefly to make some of its provisions more flexible and guarantee greater transparency. In the meantime the Commission undertakes to use all the resources of the current directive in particular to: - intensify the work of the risk assessment group established in the framework of the Committee of Competent Authorities so that a common approach to risk assessment objectives and methodology can be adopted as guidance in March 1997; - encourage and facilitate the submission of a simplified procedure allowing multistate experimental releases of certain GMOs to take place under a single consent; - take a proactive role in the case of product notifications (the exchange of views between competent authorities should take place much earlier than foreseen in the directive); - ensure that its internal procedures will be applied in an efficient manner to ensure the speedy adoption of decisions on products. �

Documents

• Non-legislative basic document published: COM(1996)0630
• Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A4-0239/1997
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T4-0371/1997

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)