EU Commissioner Dalli: ‘I never favoured GMO industry’

European Commissioner John Dalli yesterday said he never "favoured the GM industry" when asked by MaltaToday about his stand on genetically modified (GM) crops which had come under attack at the beginning of his tenure.

Addressing a press conference in Valletta on the activities of his health and consumer policy portfolio in 2011, Dalli was asked about the stand he had taken when he walked into a storm by lifting a 13-year ban on the cultivation of the GM potato 'Amflora', opening the EU market to GM cultivation by allowing member states to decide individually on the issue.

His controversial decisions were met with strong resistance by many EU member states and came under a barrage of criticism by the anti-GM lobby, particularly environmental groups.

"I take full responsibility of the dossier on GM crops. I have never favoured the industry, in truth, I have been highly critical of the industry. I have convened regular conferences for scientists, NGOs and the GM industry to discuss the matter. I am also working closely with very critical European MPs such as José Bové," Dalli said.

Bové is a French farmer and anti-globalization activist who in June 2009 was elected to the European Parliament as a member of Europe Écologie, a coalition of French environmentalist political parties. When Dalli approved the cultivation of GM potato in 2010, the green movement argued that the move will result in an irreversible process of GM contamination of fields. The anti-GM lobby says this would lead to farmers becoming dependent on big-business GMO companies for crops and pesticides.

However, in 2010 Dalli was adamant that the authorisation posed no dangers to the health of European consumers because he claimed that all scientific issues, particularly those concerning safety for human health and the environment had been fully addressed.

Dalli stated on several occasions he was committed to building an active and transparent dialogue with each party interested with GM crops.

Speaking in Valletta on Monday morning, Dalli said: "There is no hidden agenda. What I am trying to achieve is a sensible decision that takes into consideration the future needs of Europe. We cannot discard the demographic explosion and climate change. Soon the world will be faced with the problem of feeding nine billion persons. We have to look into ways and means of producing enough food. We have to look into ways of changing conventional agriculture but we cannot reject other options."

Dalli also said he would never give the go ahead to GM crops for the sake of the industry's interests. "There are risks involved in GM crops which need to be addressed. I always ask GM companies to declare what benefits their produce has for the people. Innovation in this area should not be about profits for a few companies but about the benefits of the population."

The European Commissioner said that GM crops carry some risks and however small the risks are, it will be the people not the companies to suffer if anything goes wrong. "I have a good relationship with the anti-GM lobby and NGOs such as Greenpeace because I listen to everybody. The European Food Safety Authority has been strengthened to guarantee greater independence for scientists in this matter."

At present, EU member states are only able to restrict GM crop cultivation under strict conditions as authorisation licences are valid across the 27-country bloc, in accordance with the principles of the EU's single market. Several member states have repeatedly invoked an EU safeguard clause enabling them to suspend the marketing or growth on their territory of GM crops that enjoy EU-wide authorisation, but the European Commission has never substantiated their applications and has always ordered the lifting of national bans.

In 2010 Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovenia, and the Netherlands wrote a joint paper requesting that individual countries have the right to decide whether to cultivate GM crops.

Dalli's 2010 proposal allows member states to prohibit cultivation provided that the reasons are not related to Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs') adverse effects on health and their environment, or to their socio-economic impact. But under the proposed deal, the GMO approval process would speed up, leading to environmental groups arguing that restrictions would limit the set of admissible grounds for bans mainly to ethical concerns.

In 2010, the European Commission issued new guidelines regarding the co-existence of GM and non-GM crops.  These guidelines are not binding and each country can implement its own regulations. It also allows countries to designate GMO-free zones, effectively allowing Member states to ban cultivation of GM crops in their territory without invoking the safe guard clause.

The anti-GM lobby is in favour of strengthening the right of member states to stay GMO free however it argues that this should not come at the expense of more GMO approvals and with complete disregard of cross-border contamination problems.