8 November
2005
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the recent European
Court of Justice ruling on GM crops. [25230]
Mr. Morley: The recent European Court of Justice ruling turned
down an application by Austria for a derogation from Directive 2001/18/EC
to declare the region of Upper Austria a GM-free zone. The court's ruling
was based on the fact that the Austrian Government failed to prove that the
region of Upper Austria had a unique ecosystem which might justify a
8 Nov 2005 : Column 321W
specific local risk assessment. Under existing EU law, in order to declare
a GM-free zone, that is a region where GM crops cannot be cultivated, a member
state has to prove that there are special reasons to introduce national measures.
Under current EU law, as agreed by EU member states, the only legitimate grounds
for narrowing the geographical scope of an approval to prevent cultivation
in a defined zone are the production of clear evidence that the GM crop involved
poses a particular risk to the specific area in question. In the Austrian
case, the European Court of Justice found that Austria had not demonstrated
the existence of any such risks to the region of Upper Austria.
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs what the Government's latest recommendation is on field
separation distances between GM and non-GM crops. [25232]
Mr. Morley: The separation distances between GM and non-GM
crops used in the Farm Scale Evaluations were based on information from the
National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) in 2000. We have commissioned
a further report from NIAB on separation distances to inform the proposals
we are developing on the co-existence of GM and non-GM crops. We will issue
a consultation paper on this in due course.
Source:
United Kingdom Parliament: Written Answers to Questions [8 Nov 2005].
GM crops (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/cm051108/text/51108w12.htm#column_320)
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