Success: European Parliament for National GM Ban
A big success for the GM movement in Europe: On Tuesday, July 5 the European Parliament agreed on a bill that allows Member States of the EU to prohibit the cultivation of approved GM crops on their territory. The representatives held a long meeting resulting in a majority vote led by Corinne Lepage. She won the opinion of her followers by asserting that GMOs have damaging effects on the environment, as well as on the economies of EU member states. She also promotes regional biodiversity and seed purity as better agricultural choices than herbicide resistant GM crops. Therefore the Parliament agreed to regulate the cultivation of GMOs in the future no longer on the basis of the internal market (Art. 114 of the EU constitution), but also for environmental protection (Art.192). More This agreement guarantees the right of national security against courts and the WTO and allows the application of a precautionary principle in the bill. In addition, Parliament calls for binding measures to secure the so-called coexistence (distance rules, etc.) in all Member States, giving free access to risk-research on land that is frequently denied by the companies. Also, there must be a resolution of the Council of Ministers that has not met in years, to improve the EU-wide approval procedure and the scientific criteria of the European Food Safety Authority. Save Our Seeds appealed to approve the Lepage Report together with 13 other organizations in an open letter to the representatives of the Member States. More than 66,000 citizens had asked the German Members of Parliament to support the report. Currently the federal government has no national stance of GM crops and has blocked its council to agree on a law.
Read the proposal and debate in the European Parliament Legislative Observatory.
Federal Assembly stops Genetic Engineering in Seeds
Sweeping success for the "Save Our Seeds" appeal to the cabinet of the German states and the federal government against the removal of the purity law for seeds. With a strong majority, the Federal Assembly rejected a proposal on March 18th from the German states Niedersachsen, Baden-Württemberg, and Schleswig-Holstein. These states tried to reform the strict no tolerance law for genetic engineering in seeds, with intentions of enacting GM technology for "economic, practical, and technological solutions". 70 activists delieved 65,000 signatures in a last appeal outside of the Federal Assembly building.
This action was a success. The Assembly stated, "Agriculture must rely on proper seed, and in case of damage, compensation must be paid to farmers. It must be therefore made clear in the Gene Technology Law that seed purity will be guaranteed by growers and those introducing new seeds for the first time."
