ECVC calls for the rejection of the proposal to deregulate genetically modified micro-organisms

Since the adoption of Directive 2001/18/EC, the European Union has never authorised the marketing of GMMs to be released into the environment. There have only been experimental releases so far. This new directive therefore aims to significantly facilitate the marketing of these GMMs, even though their safety for release in open environment has not been demonstrated.

ECVC position paper details the substantial health, environmental, agricultural and patent-related risks associated with this deregulation of GMMs. This legislative proposal is extremely concerning for small-scale peasant farmers : once released into the environment, GMMs can rapidly multiply, recombine and exchange genes with other microorganisms. The potential damage this could cause to agricultural systems, wild ecosystems and human health will be uncontrollable, as it will be impossible to measure the impacts or remove these GMMs from the environment once they have been released. Moreover, all of these GMMs are patented, raising the same concerns than highlighted for the NGT proposal in terms of privatisation of agrobiodiversity and loss of autonomy of farmers at the benefit patent-holding corporations.

ECVC calls for the rejection of this legislative proposal, which completely disregards the precautionary principle for the sole purpose of ‘boosting competitiveness’ – i.e. financial profits – of a few biotechnology companies, which the European Commission has identified as one of the key sectors for the EU’s economic recovery as part of its new ‘Biotech Act’