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Europaudvalget 2007-08 (2. samling)
2874 - miljø Bilag 3
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COUNCIL OF

THE EUROPEAN UNION

Brussels, 20 May 2008

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AGRI 142

ENV 304

TRANSLATION PROVIDED BY THE FRENCH DELEGATION

NOTE

from :

to :

Subject :

General Secretariat of the Council

COREPER/COUNCIL

GMOs : the way forward

At its meeting on 16 May 2008, COREPER decided, when setting up the provisional agenda of the

next Environment Council (5 June 2008), to add a new "B" agenda item on GMOs upon the request

of the French delegation.

Delegations will find hereto a background note drawn up by the French delegation concerning this

agenda item.

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ANNEX

GMOs

Discussion at the Environment Council Meeting on 5 June

BACKGROUND PAPER

I/ Context:

The production of GMO plants (PGM) in open fields has one characteristic: it rapidly

introduces, over large surface areas, living structures with new genetic characteristics, which

have numerous interactions with the ecosystems and, for many of them, difficult to foresee

at present.

Consequently, the GMOs are the subject of debates and give rise to a large number of

questions among scientists, the public, certain agricultural and agri-business sectors which

want to protect the specifications of their production from the dissemination of the GMOs,

the elected representatives and NGOs with regard to their impact on the environment, the

ecosystems, the living species, the risks of dissemination and the quantities of phytosanitary

products used in the long term.

The subject was briefly brought up, under a variety of points, at the Environment Council

meeting on 3 March at the request of France which submitted subjects for consideration. A

large number of delegations intervened to ask that the Council give the question

consideration and that it should be taken up again in more substantial form at the

Environment Council meeting on 5 June.

On 7 May, the Commission held a political discussion concerning both the procedures for

current authorisations and its more general approach to this question. On this occasion, the

Commission particularly decided to ask the EFSA for additional information on the

assessment of certain GMOs with regard to the environment

to look for a technical solution

before the summer to determine the low level of unauthorised GMOs in human and animal

foodstuffs, to work with the EFSA to clarify the possible impacts of the cultivation of

GMOs on human health and the environment, such as the results of observation and

experimentation have indicated, and to make a good distinction between the assessment and

the management of the risk.

In view of these recent developments, a political discussion among the Ministers of the

Environment on 5 June would appear necessary. On 3 March, a large number of Member

States were in favour of this.

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II / Areas for consideration:

In this context, consideration could be undertaken in the following fields:

1/ increase in the assessment, particularly with regard to the environment,

such as defined by

the appendices to directive 2001/18/EC and the EFSA guidelines, particularly in the following

fields:

An assessment of the toxicity of the PGMs producing insecticide molecules taking

inspiration more from the similarity of these toxins to phytosanitary products and resorting

to more refined statistics and a better awareness of the effects on non-targeted species.

A thorougher awareness of the risks linked to the use of the herbicides involved in the

culture of certain PGMs which are tolerant to them, through an analysis on the middle and

longer term.

The awareness, in the risk assessment of GMOs conducted for authorisation procedures,

together with scientific, sanitary and environmental criteria, of socio-economic criteria such

as the collective benefits and costs of certain GMOs in the medium or long term, the

agronomic impact and the impact from the use of the GMOs on the various production

methods.

At first, an assessment methodology of benefits should be defined and used to guide the

decision-maker before authorising a GMO. The decision must nevertheless base on risk

criteria regarding health and environment, in order to be compatible with WTO rules.

2/ improvement in the functioning of scientific expertise.

On one hand, expertise practices

between Member States must be harmonised, on the other hand, the range of scientific disciplines to

be called on has to be broadened.

The opinions of the Member States (through their national agencies) in the opinion given by the

EFSA, must be given better consideration

3/ the rapid definition at European level of labelling thresholds for GMO seed

on the basis of

relevant criteria enabling guarantees to be given to the producers, the sellers and the users of farm

and conventional non-GMO seed. Afterwards, consideration should be given to the traceability

thresholds for products without GMOs within the same perspective of a guarantee for the actors in

the long term.

4/ further details on the room for initiative left to member States to control the culture of

authorised GMOs in an appropriate manner.

France is proposing to study more precisely the room for manoeuvre allowed by the regulation and

to envisage a closer coordination with the EFSA on possible special measures regarding GMO

management in the frame of particular ecosystems, agricultural systems or specific geographical

areas.

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