When will the Commission, as promised, submit a legislative proposal amending the decision-making procedure?

22.10.2015

Question for written answer E-014075-15
to the Commission
Rule 130
Zoltán Balczó (NI)

The Commission has submitted a proposal for a regulation on ‘the possibility for the Member States to restrict or prohibit the use of genetically modified food and feed on their territory’.

Under the legislation in force, the Commission has taken decisions authorising GMOs without seeking the opinions of the Member States in support of the Commission. It refers to the political guidelines for the Commission adopted on 15 July 2014 as if the proposal submitted corresponded to those guidelines.

It is worth quoting the promise made by Jean-Claude Juncker at a sitting of the EP: ‘I will make sure that the procedural rules governing the various authorisations for GMOs are reviewed. I would not want the Commission to be able to take a decision when a majority of Member States has not encouraged it to do so’. The Commission’s annual work programme for 2015 confirms this undertaking: ‘The review will look at how the rules could be changed to better ensure that the majority view of Member States is taken into account’.

The proposal submitted by the Commission does not keep the promises, because it leaves unaltered the decision-making procedure which has been objected to.

— Why does not the Commission proposal seek to alter the EU’s authorisation procedure for GMO food and feed in the promised manner?

— When will the Commission submit a legislative proposal which fulfils the promise to alter the decision-making procedure?