1. Decision-making on genetically modified crops in the EU: finding the way out or going even deeper into the maze?

A. López-Basaguren

1. Decision-making on genetically modified crops in the EU: finding the way out or going even deeper into the maze?

In: Towards a new regulatory framework for GM crops in the European Union

Author:

A. López-Basaguren

A. López-Basaguren Professor of Constitutional, Department of Constitutional Law and History of Political Thought, University of the Basque Country, P.O. Box 644, 48080 Bilbao, Spain.

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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 23–45

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-845-2_1

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Within the EU, the decision-making process on GMOs has raised major problems with regard to the requirements of the single internal market. Market unity in the EU entails freedom of movement within the Union; this means that any product that has accessed the market in any of its constituent States (either because it has been produced or prepared there or because it has been imported by a firm established there) may be freely marketed in any of the other states and no state is entitled to restrict that freedom in its territory. However, in the case of GMOs, some states have sought to limit their circulation. This has created a conflict between the restrictive actions of these states and the principles of the internal European market. This chapter analyses the EU’s attempts to regulate and harmonise the decision-making process on authorisation of GMOs and products that contain them, as it seeks to uphold the principles of the Single Market while at the same time guaranteeing protection of human and animal health and the environment. It starts by looking at the first two regulatory frameworks for GMOs at EU level. The key regulatory texts key in this regard were Directives 90/219 and 90/220 and 2001/18/EC, both of which failed to achieve their objectives and the chapter examines the reasons for that failure and its consequences. It goes on to analyse the European Commission’s approach to the regulatory framework and the inclusion of an opt-out for Member States in the GMO decision-making process. Directive 2015/412, now passed, allows States to prohibit the cultivation of GMOs in their territory. In a proposed amendment to Regulation EC 1829/2003, the Commission recommended that any Member States that so wish might also exclude the use of GMOs in their territories, within certain limitations and provided their grounds were compatible with EU Treaties. This proposed amendment was rejected, and as a result, the regulatory framework on GMOs in the EU currently stands at something of an impasse. The chapter analyses this situation and the fact that surprisingly (and unexpectedly) it was the European Parliament that pointed out the problems with the proposal: that it fails to ensure the necessary legal certainty and adequate tools for Member States wishing to opt-out, does not define the term ‘use’ and attacks the bases of the internal market.

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Towards a new regulatory framework for GM crops in the European Union

Scientific, ethical, social and legal issues and the challenges ahead

E-Book ISBN:: 9789086868452

Publisher:: Wageningen Academic

Print Publication Date:: 11 Sep 2017

Subjects
- Life Sciences

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1. Decision-making on genetically modified crops in the EU: finding the way out or going even deeper into the maze?

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Towards a new regulatory framework for GM crops in the European Union

Scientific, ethical, social and legal issues and the challenges ahead

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