Resolution on the draft Commission implementing decision authorising the placing on the market of products containing, consisting of, or produced from genetically modified cotton 281-24-236 × 3006-210-23 × MON 88913 (DAS-24236-5×DAS-21Ø23-5×MON-88913-8)

The European Parliament adopted by 384 votes to 168, with 39 abstentions, a resolution on the draft Commission implementing decision authorising the placing on the market of products containing, consisting of, or produced from genetically modified cotton 281-24-236 × 3006-210-23 × MON 88913 (DAS-24236-5×DAS-21Ø23-5×MON-88913-8) pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council (D046168/00).

The resolution was tabled by the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety.

Members recalled that the draft Commission implementing decision was voted on in the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health referred to in Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 on 8 July 2016, with no opinion being delivered.

The draft Commission implementing decision was voted on in the Appeal Committee on 15 September 2016 and once again no opinion was delivered.

Parliament already deplored the fact that, since the entry into force of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003, authorisation decisions had been adopted by the Commission, in accordance with the applicable legislation, without the support of the opinions of Member State committees and that the return of the dossier to the Commission for the final decision, which was very much the exception for the procedure as a whole, had become the norm for decision-making on genetically modified (GM) food and feed authorisations.

Members also recalled that the legislative proposal amending Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 was rejected by Parliament on 28 October 2015 on the grounds that, while cultivation necessarily takes place on a Member State’s territory, GMO trade crosses borders, which means that a national ‘sales and use’ ban proposed by the Commission could be impossible to enforce without reintroducing border checks on imports. Parliament called on the Commission to withdraw its proposal and to submit a new one.

On this basis, Parliament considered that the draft Commission implementing decision exceeds the implementing powers provided for in provided for in Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 and is not consistent with Union law which seeks to provide the basis for ensuring a high level of protection of human life and health, animal health and welfare, environment and consumer interests in relation to genetically modified food and feed, whilst ensuring the effective functioning of the internal market.

Accordingly, Parliament called on the Commission to withdraw its draft implementing decision.

The Commission is called upon to submit a new legislative proposal on the basis of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, amending Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 to take into account frequently expressed national concerns which do not relate only to issues associated with the safety of GMOs for health or the environment.