By Jeremy Smith
BRUSSELS, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Europe has little hope of
agreeing policy on biotech foods and crops in the near future,
with country positions too far apart to break years of deadlock,
Czech Agriculture Minister Petr Gandalovic said on Friday.
The Czech Republic holds the EU's rotating presidency until
the end of June, after which Sweden will take over.
EU countries, represented by national experts or ministers
at meetings in Brussels, hardly ever agree on biotech issues.
That makes the EU's decision-making procedure particularly
difficult, since there is never enough of a majority under the
weighted voting system to approve or reject a draft decision.
To break the deadlock, EU law provides for the decision to
revert to the European Commission -- the EU executive -- which
then issues an import licence for a GM food, for example, or an
order for a country to lift a ban on a specific GM product.
Some countries, like Britain, Finland and the Netherlands,
almost always vote in favour of approving new GM foods. They are
offset by a group of GM-sceptic states like Austria, Greece and
Luxembourg, that vote against and force a voting stalemate.
That stalemate doesn't look like changing soon and has led
to a backlog of dozens of new GM applications.
"I don't see there is a chance that any qualified majority,
either for or against, will build in the foreseeable future,"
Gandalovic told Reuters in an interview.
"The member states' opinions are so far from each other that
it's not very likely (that) on this particular issue we are able
to build anything else than this silent agreement."
EU president countries are responsible for setting agendas,
chairing EU meetings and preparing compromise agreements --
wielding considerable influence, certainly as far as timing is
concerned.
Gandalovic said that as EU president, the Czech Republic was
not about to try to break the deadlock among EU farm ministers
on biotechnology. National opinions were so entrenched, he said,
that it would be an impossible task.
"We won't actively be trying to change the overall approach
of the council (of ministers) towards GMOs because we think it
won't change ... it's impossible. Experience tells us that
mostly the votes are with no outcome, it's deadlock," he said.
In Europe, consumers are well known for their scepticism, if
not hostility, to GM crops, often dubbed as "Frankenstein
foods." But the international biotech industry says its products
are as safe as conventional equivalent foods.
Even though the European Union has approved a string of new
GM imports for use in food and feed since 1994, the
authorisations have all been thanks to the default rubberstamp
procedure initiated after the usual ministerial deadlock.
And approving a new GM crop for cultivation is seen as
almost impossible in the EU's current climate, diplomats say.
Only one crop is now authorised for commercial cultivation
in the EU -- a modified maize developed by U.S. company Monsanto
CO. <MON.N> -- but EU experts will be asked to vote next week on
approving two other GM maize types for growing.
