EU Parliament Pledges $upport for GM Technologies 

Reuters 15mar01

STRASBOURG, France - The European Parliament declared its support for biotechnology on Thursday, but stopped short of calling for the European Union to lift its ban on new genetically modified (GM) food strains.

The parliament issued a statement saying genetic technologies were good for employment and could help the environment.

The non-binding resolution will give a rare morale boost to biotechnology companies, which still face an unofficial EU ban on most of their products because of European concerns that genetically altered plants could contain hidden health or environmental risks.

The parliament itself has recently approved a tough new system for licensing new GM foods strains for use in the 15-country bloc.

The statement, drafted by British Conservative John Purvis and approved by a majority of EU deputies attending the assembly in Strasbourg, said the parliament "resolved to support the development of biotechnology in the European Union."

But the assembly deleted a paragraph in the statement that criticized "government actions to delay authorisation of GM products for reasons not based on objective scientific opinion," which would have been a direct attack on the EU's freeze on granting new GM licenses.

The EU has not authorized any new GM strains since April 1998 pending new rules on testing and monitoring their effect on the environment. Governments will reconsider the ban in the coming months once the final elements of the new regulatory system have been drafted by the EU's executive Commission.

The biotech industry may get more support next week when EU Enterprise Commissioner Erkki Liikanen presents a 10-year policy paper on biotechnology and life sciences to EU leaders at a summit in Stockholm.

Liikanen welcomed the parliament's "valuable input" into developing biotechnologies in the EU. "Biotechnology has a very important role to play in fulfilling the commitment made (by the EU) to develop a competitive knowledge-based economy," he said in a statement.