In a recent meeting of the EU’s Environment Council, Austria, supported by 12 other countries including Malta, submitted a note proposing the way forward on the legislation dealing with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in agriculture – a source of ongoing bioethics debates.

The use of GMOs in agriculture is one of the rare subjects of EU legislation where no qualified majority has been achieved within the EU Council in recent years.

By way of the proposal, submitted during the 25 June Environment Council meeting, the 13 member states are calling for the authorisation process for GMO cultivation to be revisited, so that it will become the right of each individual country to decide whether to restrict or prohibit the cultivation of authorised GMOs in its territory.

The Austrian proposal is being supported by Bulgaria, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, The Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia. The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines GMOs as organisms in which the genetic material has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally.

The technology allows selected individual genes to be transferred from one organism into another, also between non-related species.

Genetically modified (GM) foods are developed because there is some perceived advantage either to the producer or consumer, which is meant to translate into a product with a lower price, greater benefit (in terms of durability or nutritional value) or both.

During the Environment Council meeting, Minister for Resources and Rural Affairs George Pullicino, representing the Prime Minister, who is responsible for the environment, questioned the current EU process to authorise the cultivation of GMOs.

Mr Pullicino called for a new process that would allow member states a freer hand in deciding on these matters at local level.

He stressed that decisions would be able to factor in local specificities, allowing European citizens to better understand the decisions.

On four occasions in the last four years, a qualified majority in the EU Council voted against proposals to lift the safeguard clauses with regard to certain GMOs.

In the most recent meeting on 2 March, 22 member states voted against a European Commission proposal to repeal bans on MON 810 genetically modified maize, which is the only GM crop that is widely grown in Europe.

In addition to risk based assessment (safe for human health, animal health and the environment), the delegations supporting this initiative said in their note that relevant socio-economic aspects should play a role in the authorisation of GMOs and GMO products.

They could also form a basis for individual member states to prohibit or regulate the cultivation of GMOs in the whole territory, or certain defined areas of individual member states. There is currently no methodology available for defining and evaluating socio-economic criteria.

Meanwhile, the European Commission has started a process to re-evaluate the respective regulations on GMOs, that is, Directive 2001/18/EC and Regulation (EC) No. 1829/2003. Austria’s proposal suggests a set of minor amendments to relevant EU legislation, which could be based on the subsidiarity principle and the principle of unanimity for decisions on land use.

At present, any EU licence for import or cultivation of a GM product is for a 10-year period and always applies across all the bloc’s 27 member states.

Even though EU law provides, under certain strict conditions, for a country to restrict GM crop cultivation or GM product imports, authorisation licences are valid across the bloc – in accordance with the principles of the single EU internal market.