EU parliament demands more power over GMOs

   EU: November 29, 1999

   BRUSSELS - The European Parliament demanded that it be given joint
   decision-making powers with European Union governments on any future
   legislation on genetically modified organisms (GMOs). 

   The assembly's environment committee said the EU's approach to laws
   regulating GMOs was "piecemeal". It called for rules to be drawn up
   quickly to cover animal feed containing GMOs and on how to define a
   food as GMO-free.

   With public concern growing in Europe about the safety of
   gene-modified crops, the parliament - the EU's only directly elected
   assembly - is angry that it had no role in the agreement last month of
   new labelling standards for GM foods.

   The rules, agreed by EU governments, will force food producers to
   label their products as containing GMOs if they cannot guarantee that
   each of the ingredients contains less than one percent GM material.

   In a resolution drafted by environment committee chairwoman Caroline
   Jackson, the parliament called for a review clause to be included in
   the rules to allow the one percent threshold to be reconsidered within
   12 months.

   "We know we're sidelined on this issue, but this is designed to be a
   political signal that we should have powers of co-decision on all
   issues relating to GMOs," a parliament official said.

   EU governments are due to complete reforms to the way the bloc
   functions by the end of next year to ensure that the decision-making
   process does not become clogged when new members join early next
   century.

   A recent report from a group of "Wise Men" set up to advise the
   European Commission on reform said joint decision-making between
   governments and the parliament should become the norm.

   REUTERS NEWS SERVICE