Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-07-01-Speech-2-104"
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"en.20030701.5.2-104"2
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"Madam President, this issue divides our Member States as it does people across the world, sometimes with an intensity comparable to religious conviction. I confess to having no such absolute certainties. I am a sceptic rather than an opponent of genetically modified crops. I acknowledge that they may bring about benefits in terms of the reduced use of pesticides and herbicides, that there are no proven health risks – or none yet established – and that GM crops could, across the world, be grown in circumstances which would not permit the growth of conventional crops.
However, I see no certain gains from growing GM products in Europe. I believe changes in European and American trade policies are likely to prove of greater benefit to developing nations, and I have fears that we could be making mistakes that will have unforeseen consequences for our environment.
A common framework of policies is needed if we are to avoid the risk of a trade war with the United States, with appeals to the WTO, and to curb the risk of divisions amongst ourselves across the European Union.
I await with interest the result of the field trials currently being carried out in my own country, to see whether they provide any evidence on the effects of biodiversity. I am pleased to hear that the Commission's proposals for guidelines on the subject of coexistence are on schedule. It is vital that these ensure that conventional and organic growers should not lose out as a result of this technology. They must be protected from the risk of financial loss, and the proposals here should allow individual Member States to take significant steps to prevent cross-contamination – at least that is the hope.
There is a strong sense that we are all being driven too fast by narrow commercial interests, mainly concentrated in the United States. As a result, I have no doubt that this is an imperfect package and we will have to return to this subject. In the meantime consumers must be given the information to make their own choices and, if this ultimately slows the development of this technology while more research is undertaken, then that may be no bad thing."@en1
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