Il Sole - 24 Ore
March 18, 2006
Page 21
The Constitutional Court has Rejected the Law on Coexistence
The Veto on OGM Falls
The Regions to Decide
The Italian Constitutional
Court rejected the law that regulated the coexistence
between conventional agricultural production and that
obtained from genetically modified seeds (GMO
seeds), and indirectly sent into the archives the defacto
moratorium, which impeded the
introduction of agricultural biotechnology in Italy.
From a constitutional
perspective the focus of the issue was the question of
competence,
recognizing that the Regions have exclusive right to
determine the norms on coexistence
between the two types of cultivation. But the judges also
entered in to the substance of the
issue. The decision was published yesterday, on the same day
that the Minister of
Agriculture, Gianni Alemanno, by coincidence that not
everyone considers to be accidental,
had convoked six months behind schedule the members of the
“Agricultural Roundtable” (NB
an advisory body that includes representatives from all the
Regions of Italy as well as farmer
and consumer organizations) at Palazzo Chigi to present the
government’s general guidance
to the Regions on coexistence. The measures taken by the
minister were thus immediately
withered. The Constitutional Court has, in fact, only
“saved” the first two articles of the
(January) 2005 coexistence law, which relate to the freedom
of consumers to choose
between transgenic and conventional products, and
limitations on the cultivation to maintain
separate production chains for conventional and organic
products. The rest of the law is
discarded in the view of the constitutional judges who have
decreed that the Regions have
the exclusive competency to legislate these matters (of
coexistence).
It was
the Regional Council of Marche, one of Italy’s 13
self-declared “GMO free” regions that
appealed against the law. But the tenor of the ruling does
not support an anti-biotech
position. As so, in an irony of sorts, the law has been
riddled by “friendly fire.” The ruling is
very well constructed and enters into the substance of the
question on GMOs, and makes
explicit reference to the imposition of limits to economic
initiative, limits that must be
justified by verifiable scientific foundations.
At this point, the ball passes
to the Regions which have to regulate the ma tter while
keeping
in mind the strictures of the Community. The EU Commission,
which has declined to create
one overarching regulation, and has thrown back to the
individual Member States the task of
developing national rules for coexistence, has also
reaffirmed that regional blanket
regulations that forbid the cultivation of GMOs without
justification based on risk are not to
be enacted. Therefore, the position of the Commission to
reject the Austrian notification to
absolutely ban the planting of GMOs remains firm.
Europe continues to have
little legislation in place on coexistence, with only
Germany,
Denmark, Portugal and six Austrian Lander having notified
Brussels. Italy was just
managing, after two years of work, to issue instructions to
farmers interested in planting
GMO crops, that would include, among other things, buffer
zone requirements, which for
corn were from a minimum of 200 meters to 1000 meters to
guarantee the minimum risk of
commingling with organic products, while for soybeans the
range runs from 50 to 200
meters. The provisions also define the oversight of
production and the process for returning
to conventional production. At this point, the text is at
risk of remaining a purely legislative
exercise. Minister Alemanno said, “the Constitutional Court
has opened a dangerous passage
for the wide contamination of transgenic materials in
regions and areas of quality products
that wish to remain GMO-free.” The minister has already
announced his wish to develop, in
cooperation with the Regions, an urgent measure.
The ruling, on the other hand,
has been greeted with satisfaction by Assobiotech, the
association for the development of biotechnology and part of
FederChimica. “Finally, even in
Italy,” commented the Assobiotech President Roberto Gradnik,
“as has already happened
during the last two years in other parts of Europe, it is
possible to commercialize and use
authorized GMOs, through the screen of the most severe rules
and rigorous controls existing
in the world.”
