Brussels, Belgium
14 September 2007
Yesterday, the
European Court of Justice
confirmed that statutory GMO-free regions are illegal. The Court
dismissed the appeals of Upper Austria and the Austrian
Government against their ban on the use of biotech crops in the
region of Upper Austria.
“This is great news for farmers,
for the scientific based risk assessment of the EFSA and for the
EU biotech regulatory framework which the Member States put in
place. Industry now calls on the region of Upper Austria to drop
its illegal and unscientific opposition to approved biotech
crops and allow Austrian farmers the choice to grow GMOs if they
so wish.” said Johan Vanhemelrijck, Secretary General EuropaBio
– the EU association for bioindustries. “Attempts to create
socalled “GMO-free regions” should be seen for what they are: a
denial of the
freedom of choice for farmers and consumers.”
The Judgement says that practices
like organic agriculture and small scale farming cannot be used
as an argument to ban cultivation of approved biotech crops.
Both the Commission and the Commissioner for Agriculture,
Mariann Fischer Boel have stated in the past that “farmers
should be able to produce in a traditional way, be it
conventional or organic, according to the high quality and
safety standards in the EU. And they should as well have the
choice to produce GM-crops, if they see advantages in doing so
and find a market for them.” (1)
Farmers can take official action
against their region if it tries to stop them from cultivating
EU approved biotech crops, while freedom of choice guarantees
that individual or groups of farmers are free to cultivate
conventional, organic or biotech crops. Today’s decision
confirms that it is illegal for regional or national governments
to impose bans and deprive individual farmers of the choice to
grow biotech crops which have been approved for commercial
cultivation in the EU.
EuropaBio is the European
Association for Bioindustries, solely and uniquely bringing
together bioscience companies from all fields of research and
development, testing, manufacturing and distribution of
biotechnology products. It has 84 corporate members operating
worldwide, 12 associate members, 5 BioRegions and 25 national
biotechnology associations representing some 1800 small and
medium sized enterprises involved in research.
(1) (European Report, 8 April
2005, “Genetic engineering: Fischer Boel tells GM free regions
all-out ban 'not justified”). |
