Parliament adopts 51st objection to EU authorisation of GM crops

Parliament adopts 51st objection to EU authorisation of GM crops

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On Thursday 17 December, the European Parliament voted to adopt five objections against authorisations of GM crops for use as food and feed in the EU. These objections, which are not binding on the European Commission, will bring the overall number of objections to 51 since December 2015.
So far, the Commission has ignored all objections and adopted the GM crop authorisations regardless (except for three cultivation authorisations). This is despite the fact that political support for these authorisations has been shrinking over the last years. The number of EU governments supporting GM crop authorisations in the Appeals Committee has gone down, whereas the number of MEPs voting in favour of the Parliament’s objections has gone up (see detailed information below).
In its EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2030, the Commission has said it wanted the EU to “lead the world by example and by action” on protecting biodiversity and stop the export of banned pesticides from the EU. In a letter to MEPs it also announced it would develop a new approach to the authorisation of GM crops for import “based on sustainability considerations”.
Tilly Metz, lead objector for the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament, said: “Von der Leyen’s Green Deal Commission continues to authorise genetically modified crops whose cultivation causes environmental devastation in the producer countries, including the destruction of rainforests. It has promised to screen GM crops for their environmental impacts but nothing is happening so far.”
“As a lucrative market for such crops, and animal feed produced from them, the EU is complicit in deforestation. It also turns a blind eye to the use of toxic herbicides on GM crops grown abroad that are banned in the EU due to the dangers they pose to nature and people’s health. This practice must end. The EU cannot claim to lead the world on the protection of nature whilst continuing to drive nature destruction outside its borders.”
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Read on and access linked sources here:
https://gmwatch.org/en/news/latest-news/19630

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