Commission Memo (MEMO/02/214), 16 October 2002

GM FOOD - Outcome of the Agri/Fisheries Council of October - Debate on GM-food and -feed proposal

The Council had a further orientation debate on the GM food/feed proposal. Delegations focused on answering the three questions asked by the Presidency:

• The question of centralised or decentralised authorisation procedure (art. 6, 8, 19 and 21);
• Transitional measures for the adventitious presence of positively evaluated GMOs (art 45a);
• The scope and threshold for labelling of GM food and feed (art. 13 and 26).

Commissioner Byrne commented on the debate: "Considerable progress has been made on this important and very difficult dossier since the beginning of July. There are still a number of technical and detailed questions outstanding - but I remain confident that most, if not all of these, can be resolved under the able stewardship of the Danish Presidency. The EU is well advanced on building a legal framework addressing consumer demands and concerns around GMOs. Based on this solid framework we can further address the question of pending applications of GMOs which have been assessed by our scientists of not posing a danger to public health."

The Presidency expressed its hope to achieve a common position on the proposed law at the next Council.