European Parliament adopts strong report on GM coexistence, seeds and liability

December 22, 2003 -- CropChoice news: The European Parliament last week adopted a report "on coexistence between genetically modified crops and conventional and organic crops", which calls inter alia for a european wide regulation of coexistence and liability and for the labelling of genetically modified organisms in seeds at the detection threshold (i.e. 0,1%).

The Parliament also calls upon the Commission and the member states not to approve any cultivation of GMOs until such legislation is in place. The initiative report was adopted by a large majority of 327 vote in favor, 52 against and 34 abstentions. Although the report has no imediate legislative implication it is is a major political victory in the ongoing discussion about coexistence, pending legislation on seed purity and about the moratorium on new approvals for GMOs within the European Union.

The "Save our Seeds" initiative would like to congratulate the rapporteur, Friedrich-Wilhelm Graefe zu Baringdorf, who drafted the report for the Parliaments Agricultural Committee and thank him for the good co-operation.

The full report as adopted is available in all EU languages at http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/sipade2?SAME_LEVEL=1&LEVEL=4& NAV=S&DET AI L=&P UBREF=-//EP//TEXT+REPORT+A5-2003- 0465+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN#Content570990 . More details at http://zs-l.de/saveourseeds/news/international/news.html