The European Parliament adopted by 405 votes to 205,
with 25 abstentions, a resolution objecting to the draft
Commission implementing decision renewing the authorisation for the
placing on the market of products containing, consisting of, or
produced from genetically modified maize 59122 (DAS-59122-7)
pursuant to Regulation
(EC) No 1829/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council
on genetically modified food and feed.
On 19 July 2016, Pioneer Overseas Corporation and Dow
AgroSciences Ltd. jointly submitted an application for the renewal
of the authorisation for the placing on the market of foods and
feed containing, consisting of, or produced from genetically
modified (GM) maize 59122.
GM maize 59122 expresses proteins conferring
resistance to coleopteran insect pests belonging to the genus
Diabrotica such as larvae of western corn rootworm and the PAT
protein which confers tolerance to glufosinate containing
herbicides.
Although the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
adopted a favourable opinion to renew the authorisation, many
critical comments were submitted by Member States in relation
to the first EFSA opinion during the three-month consultation
period relating to:
- that ‘the monitoring conducted for GM maize 59122
is unable to provide meaningful results for the current assessment
and to resolve uncertainties associated with the risk assessment
conducted prior to authorisation, e.g. as regards exposure of the
environment’;
- that ‘the monitoring approach implemented
for GM maize 59122 is not in line with requirements of Annex VII of
Directive
2001/18/EC’.
Other areas of concern are: (i) the fact that several
studies demonstrate that the immunogenicity of Cry proteins in mice
have not been submitted by the applicant; (ii) the residues from
spraying with glufosinate were not assessed; (iii) the fact that
residues from the spraying of complementary herbicides could be
expected to be present in the crops.
Members considered that it would be unacceptable
from a food safety perspective, as well as highly inconsistent, to
authorise the import of a glufosinate tolerant GM maize given
that the authorisation for the use of glufosinate in the Union
expires on 31 July 2018 due to its reproductive
toxicity.
On the basis of these considerations, Parliament
considered that the Commission’s implementing decision is not
compatible with Union law which requires the provision of the basis
for ensuring a high level of protection of human life and health,
animal health and welfare, the environment and consumer interests,
while ensuring the effective functioning of the internal
market.
As a result, Parliament asked the Commission to
withdraw its draft implementing decision.
On a procedural level,
Members recalled that since the entry into force of authorisation
procedure for GMOs, authorisation decisions have been adopted by
the Commission without the support of the Standing Committee on the
Food Chain and Animal Health.
The return of the dossier to the Commission for
final decision, which is very much the exception for the procedure
as a whole, has become the norm for decision-making on genetically
modified food and feed authorisations. This practice has also been
deplored by Commission President Juncker as not being
democratic.
Parliament called on the Commission to suspend any
implementing decision regarding applications for authorisation
of genetically modified organisms until the authorisation procedure
has been revised in such a way so as to address the shortcomings of
the current procedure.
It also called on it to advance work on the Commission
proposal amending Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 as a matter of
urgency and to ensure that, inter alia, if no opinion is delivered
by the Food Chain and Animal Health Standing Committee with respect
to GMOs approvals, either for cultivation or for food and feed, the
Commission will withdraw the proposal.
Lastly, the Commission is called on not to
authorise the import of any genetically modified plant for food
or feed uses which has been made tolerant to a complementary
herbicide which is banned, or which will be banned in the near
future, in the Union.