Resolution on the draft Commission implementing decision authorising the placing on the market of products containing, consisting of, or produced from genetically modified soybean FG72 × A5547-127 pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council on genetically modified food and feed

The European Parliament adopted by 454 votes to 198 with 36 abstentions a resolution tabled by the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety objecting to the draft Commission implementing decision authorising the placing on the market of products containing, consisting of, or produced from genetically modified soybean FG72 × A5547-127 pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council on genetically modified food and feed.

On 10 December 2013 Bayer Crop Science LP and M.S. Technologies LLC submitted an application for the placing on the market of foods, food ingredients and feed containing, consisting of, or produced from genetically modified soybean FG72 x A5547-127 to the national competent authority of the Netherlands, in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 on genetically modified food and feed.

Whilst the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) adopted a favourable opinion, Member States submitted numerous critical comments during the three-month consultation period, centring on the observations that:

• in the absence of a 90-day sub-chronic toxicity test, no conclusion on the risks relating to the use of this GMO in human and animal feed can be drawn;
• information provided on composition, phenotypic evaluation and toxicology is insufficient;
• conclusions reached on equivalence between the GMO and the conventional soybean, and on food and feed safety, based on this information are premature, and that this GMO soybean has not been tested with the scientific vigour needed to establish its safety.

Parliament considered that the draft Commission implementing decision exceeds the implementing powers provided for in Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003, and called on the Commission to withdraw its draft implementing decision. It cited several concerns, including the likelihood of glyphosate and isoxaflutole being carcinogens for humans, and toxic to reproduction. The draft Commission implementing decision is not consistent with Union law in that it is not compatible with the aim of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003, which is, to provide the basis for ensuring a high level of protection of human life and health, animal health and welfare, while ensuring the effective functioning of the internal market.

On a procedural level, Members also noted that the vote of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health delivered no opinion, but 15 Member States voted against, while only 10 Member States – representing just 38.43 % of the Union population – voted in favour, with three Member States abstaining.

The Commission was asked to suspend any implementing decision regarding applications for authorisation of genetically modified organisms until the authorisation procedure has been revised in such a way as to address the shortcomings of the current procedure, which has proven to be inadequate. In this respect, Members noted that the Commission has deplored the fact that since the entry into force of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 it has had to adopt authorisation decisions without the support of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health, and that the return of the dossier to the Commission for final decision, which is very much the exception for the procedure as a whole, has become the norm for decision-making on genetically modified food and feed authorisations. This practice has also been deplored by President Juncker as not being democratic.

Parliament called on the Commission:

• not to authorise any herbicide-tolerant genetically modified plants (HT GMP) or any HT GMP made resistant to a combination of herbicides, as is the case with soybean FG72 × A5547-127, without full assessment of the specific cumulative effects of the residues from spraying with the combination of the complementary herbicides and its commercial formulations as applied in the countries of cultivation;
• to request much more detailed testing of the health risks relating to stacked events such as soybean FG72 × A5547-127;
• to develop strategies for health risk assessment and toxicology, as well as post-market monitoring, that target the whole food and feed chain;
• to fully integrate the risk assessment of the application of the complementary herbicides and their residues into the risk assessment of HT GMPs, regardless of whether the genetically modified plant is for cultivation in the Union or for import for food and feed.