Budapest, Hungary
March 2, 2007
USDA/FAS GAIN report HU 7004
Report Highlights
On February 20th, the EU
environmental ministers voted down the European Commission’s
proposal for Hungary to repeal its prohibition on the use
and sale of biotech corn “MON 810”. The Hungarian
Environmental Minister stressed that the decision was not
against the production of genetically modified plants.
However, he emphasized that Hungary wants to maintain
safeguard measures until solid studies on the environmental
effects are available.
On February 20th, EU environmental
ministers voted down the European Commission’s proposal
requesting Hungary to repeal its prohibition on the use and sale
of biotech corn variety “MON 810”. The proposal was rejected by
a qualified majority of Member States with UK, Finland, Sweden
and the Netherlands supporting it and Romania abstaining.
Hungarian Environment Minister
Miklos Persanyi stressed that the “Ecological risks of other,
first of all closed system biotech technologies are negligible
but the ‘open’ technologies need further analysis.” He added
that the decision was not against the production of genetically
modified plants “en bloc”. Hungary wants to maintain the
safeguard measures until solid environmental effect studies are
complete. Hungarian corn producers can control corn borer
problems with traditional plant protection methods, and
Hungary’s main export markets favor non-biotech products.
Erno Duda, Chairman of the
Hungarian Biotechnology Association, was quoted in several
Hungarian business daily newspapers emphasizing the positive
results of agricultural biotechnology worldwide and the openness
of Hungarian farmers (as evidenced by a recent opinion poll) for
use of this technology. Duda pointed out the ambiguous approach
of the EU concerning both the approval of biotech varieties and
the regulation of coexistence.
Greenpeace and the Hungarian green
movements praised the results of the vote, and there are
indications that anti-GMO interest groups may exploit current
domestic policy tensions in the GOH to push for tightening the
country’s current coexistence legislation (CVII/2006 Act
[December 7.] “On the Amendment of the XXVII/1998 Act on
Biotechnology Activities”). The current coexistence regulation
creates a “de facto” ban on planting biotech varieties in
Hungary (for additional information on the above legislation,
see GAINS report HU6015).
As a counter to the recent
anti-biotech murmurings, the Hungarian business press published
references to the early 2006 WTO panel ruling, which accused the
EU of not doing enough against the bans of some Member States.
The results of the EU
Environmental Ministers vote has given Hungary more time to
maintain its status as a “GMO-free” country. The European
Commission is unlikely to challenge the Hungarian and Austrian
bans in the near future. However, the upcoming reform of the
EU’s agricultural policies (i.e. introduction of the “single
farm payment” scheme), expected cuts in corn intervention, and
other changes affecting the competitiveness of Hungarian corn
production (including Hungary’s prominent corn seed business)
may force the GOH to revise
its policy concerning biotech corn varieties. |
