Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and GMOs in the EU
9.4.2014
Question for written answer E-004430-14
to the Commission
Rule 117
Biljana Borzan (S&D)
Against the backdrop of the ongoing negotiations between the EU and the USA on the TTIP, I would like to highlight the issue of regulating GMOs.
Unlike the USA, The European Union — or rather some of its Member States — has a largely restrictive policy on GMOs. With TTIP negotiations still under way, the USA is putting pressure on the EU to permit the importation of genetically modified products. The US agricultural industry is in favour of lowering the EU’s high standards relating to GMOs. To be more precise, their lobbyists have been advocating abolishing the labelling of GMOs and products that contain them.
This is leading the public to speculate that products which would be unable to meet EU safety standards could be given access to the EU's market through the processes of ‘equivalence’ or ‘mutual recognition’. The European system for approving GMO seeds is based on the precautionary principle, meaning that the existence of a risk to consumers from a product results in that product being banned.
US negotiators have stated that the TTIP would require the elimination of sanitary and phytosanitary restrictions that are not scientifically‐based. In other words, rather than the agricultural industry providing evidence that GMOs do not pose a danger to consumers, bans on GMOs would only be in force if governments were able to prove scientifically that a threat to human, animal or plant life existed.
This means that national authorities will have to prove to the agricultural industry that GMOs are harmful, instead of the industry proving to the authorities that GMOs are safe. Furthermore, they will be able to take governments to court for violating their rights as investors.
If the speculation surrounding ‘equivalence’ and ‘mutual recognition’ proves to be accurate, not only will the European system for approving GMOs be under threat, but also the rights of Member States to ban GMOs on their own sovereign territory.
Will the signing of the TTIP undermine the precautionary principle and the labelling of GMOs in the EU? Will the signing of the TTIP be tantamount to authorising GMOs throughout the entire EU?
OJ C 377, 23/10/2014