After long and difficult negotiations EU food and agriculture ministers have reached a political agreement on the proposal for a regulation on GMO food and feed, measures that are expected to have considerable impact on food manufacturers in Europe.
President of the Council, Danish minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Mariann Fischer Boel said: "With the political agreement on the proposal we have taken an important step towards offering consumers a real choice when it comes to GMOs. This is an important victory for the European consumers."
The proposals include the first rules for the use and labelling of GMO-based feed. These rules will correspond to those that apply to GM food, which means marketing of GM feed will be subject to prior approval and that GMO-feed must be labelled.
The agreement also means that labelling will be required for food and feed produced on the basis of GMO material, even if GMOs cannot be identified in the final product, for example in soya bean oil. The labelling requirement will not apply for the presence of GMOs below a 0.9 per cent threshold. However, in a transitory period a common threshold of 0.5 per cent will be set for the added presence of non-authorised GMOs that have a positive scientific approval.
To implement the new regulations the EC has decided that a decentralised authorisation procedure will be introduced for new GMOs, offering consumers the same guarantees as the centralised procedure proposed by the Commission.
A final adoption of the GMO proposals requires a co-decision between the Council and the European Parliament. The Council will send the proposal for new consideration by the European Parliament.