Malta will not support Borg’s proposal on GM maize

Deputy prime minister and EU affairs minister Louis Grech has said Malta will not support a European Commission proposal for the placement on the market, for cultivation of a genetically modified product.

Speaking at the General Affairs Council, Louis Grech said that the scientific evidence provided on the subject had not convinced many governments or European citizens about the environmental and health risks involved.

Grech cautioned the Commission against merely looking at legislative procedural issues when the vast majority of member states and citizens were against the proposal. "It would be unwise and unproductive for the Commission not to heed to these concerns," Grech said.

The General Affairs Council is discussing a very difficult dossier on the Commission proposal on genetically modified maize (1507) which was presented by Maltese Commissioner Tonio Borg and follows the latest judgment of the European Court of Justice on the file late last year.

Growing consensus for @EU_Commission proposal to allow #EU Member States to opt out from #GM cultivation http://t.co/58thsVMGLC #GMOs — Tonio Borg (@borgton) February 11, 2014

Malta has indicated that if the issue came to a vote, it would not support the proposal.

Grech has proposed that a discussion is reactivated on the Cultivation Proposal in order to have a practical, clear, and legally robust framework to allow member states the possibility to opt-out from the cultivation of genetically modified crops on their territories, if they choose to do so.

Nineteen out of 28 member states oppose the cultivation of maize 1507, manufactured by DuPont Pioneer.

In November, the EC proposed to drive forward the approval of maize 1507 after a lengthy stalemate. The crop is engineered to produce its own pesticide against the European corn borer, a notorious pest insect. The EU has authorized the crop's importation for food and animal feed, but not its cultivation - although the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has given it the green light in several scientific assessments.

At the moment, only one GM crop can be grown in the EU, a maize variety made by U.S. agrochemical company Monsanto

According to the European Union's "comitology" rules, the Commission can authorise the crop's cultivation in the absence of a qualified majority at the council. Health Commissioner Tonio Borg today insisted that the commission should respect these rules and take action. "No one can say we rushed or pushed this file," Borg said at today's meeting, reminding ministers that the application "has been languishing for 13 years" and that EFSA considers maize 1507 safe to grow.

Several ministers have however complained, saying the Commission is being stubborn. "This is dangerous for the image of EU institutions, it will fuel the idea that Europe doesn't work or works badly," Thierry Repentin, France's minister in charge of EU affairs, said during the debate.

To avoid similar impasses in the future, Borg urged ministers to reconsider the Commission's so-called cultivation proposal, put forward in 2010 to revamp authorization procedures for GM crops. Under this plan, the Commission would still grant pan-European authorizations, but individual member states would be able to ban a given product on their territory. That proposal has been stalled so far, but environment ministers are now expected to discuss it in March.

Former Maltese Commissioner for health John Dalli has also authorise the growing of BASF's Amflora potato, to great consternation, but in December 2013 the EU's Court of Justice annulled the authorisation because the EC had not respected EU procedures. Greenpeace claims that the case of maize 1507 is similar and that the authorization would not hold in court.