The Journal

Liability Vote On GMOs Fails

Efforts to make producers of genetically modified foods legally liable for the results failed yesterday.

Euro MPs rejected calls to impose responsibility on the makers for any damage done by genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to human health or the environment.

Labour Euro MP David Bowe, speaking after a vote in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, said: "There was intense lobbying and pressure from the biotech industry on Euro MPs and they have defeated this move."

"The question now is: if the industry is not prepared to take full responsibility for what it produces why should consumers have any faith in these products? It is clear the industry is not yet willing to face up to its duties if these GMOs go wrong."

Mr Bowe pushed for a legal liability clause as part of a range of new restrictions on the development of GMOs. His report on updating an EU directive on the "deliberate release" of GMOs into the environment triggered a major battle between the biotech sector and environment groups.

The new legislation is designed to tighten the trade in GM crops. It concerns both experimental and market releases of GMOs, and most of Mr Bowe's proposals were approved yesterday.

Euro MPs backed calls for a total ban on GM foods which are resistant to antibiotics and agreed to impose strict controls on the export of genetically modified organisms beyond the European Union.

But the most controversial move - the liability clause - was defeated by 287 votes to 202.

The biotech industry claims the kind of clampdown demanded by some MEPs would inhibit research and mean lost jobs.

Yesterday's agreement also included an annual risk assessment programme to evaluate GM products.