Germany considers compromise on GM crops

Ministers react negatively to French proposal, but Germany signals support for a new text from the Greek presidency.

Germany’s environment minister has signalled that the German government would be willing to consider a compromise that would allow member states to bring in national bans on GM crops authorised at EU level. The compromise was drawn up by Greece, which holds the presidency of the Council of Ministers.

Barbara Hendricks said she expects Germany’s federal government to take a decision before June.

Germany has been part of a blocking minority that is resisting a 2010 proposal from the European Commission that sought to break the deadlock on GM crops by allowing member states to introduce national bans. Many member states are concerned that the proposal would not survive legal scrutiny at EU or World Trade Organization (WTO) level.

The German states are divided on the subject, and the federal government has not been able to find a unified position. “That’s part of our task within the German government, to achieve clarity,” Hendricks said. “But we should be able to decide before June when the European Council will ultimately make this decision.”

Germany switching its position on the issue would be enough to garner a qualified majority in the Council.

The issue is considered to be so sensitive that a decision should be taken by EU leaders at their summit in June. The Greek compromise text would introduce the national bans through derogations, which is considered to be more legally secure.

An alternative compromise proposal from France put forward last week was  rejected by environment ministers today. That proposal would have introduced a two-tier system of authorisation, one at EU level and one at national level. Such a system already exists in the EU for pesticide authorisation.

However, most ministers said that the French text would require starting work on the file all over again, while the Greek text works with the existing proposal from the Commission. Tonio Borg, the European commissioner for health, agreed. “’It is not time to take a new bus, it’s time to board the one we have,” he said.

“We got a strong mandate, almost unanimous, to move forward with the new compromise proposal of the presidency in order to reach a political agreement as soon as possible, according to the will of the strong majority of the European citizens” said Yannis Maniatis, the Greek minister for the environment, after the meeting.

The Greek presidency will host a meeting of experts on the new text on 13 March, to prepare for the European Council in June.

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