The European Council's legal service has serious doubts about the legality of controversial Commission plans to allow member countries to ban the use of imported GM food and feed, as such a move would not comply with European Union internal market and world trade rules.
In a legal opinion distributed to member countries, Council lawyers find major flaws in the legal basis of the proposals. They cite a lack of specific reasons to justify a ban at national level and say any import restrictions would flout Europe's international trade obligations.
Although the proposed food and feed opt-out is modelled on the recently-introduced GM cultivation opt-out, it fails to provide "public interest" grounds on which the opt-outs would be based.
This being the case, the Brussels proposal will not stand up to Word Trade Organisation scrutiny, says the legal team.
Given there is already little appetite among MEPs and member countries for the food and feed opt-out, it looks possible the measure will now be scrapped altogether by the Commission, although it has repeatedly stressed there is no Plan B for dealing with Europe's stalemate over GM approvals.
The legal experts say there are serious doubts about compatibility with internal market and World Trade Organisation rules. It is also questionable under Article 114 of the Treaty of Lisbon, which provides for efficient functioning of the single market.
European Union farm ministers requested the legal opinion at a Council meeting last July, where nearly all delegations expressed reservations about potential disruption to the functioning of the internal market, possible World Trade Organisation challenges and the future competitiveness of Europe's livestock sector.
But health commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis has repeatedly stated any rejection of the plan would lead to a continuation of the current stalemate where member countries fail to take a clear position on GM food and feed, leaving it to the Commission to decide.
However farm ministers are well aware of European livestock producers' heavy reliance on imports of GM protein feed — around 32m tonnes a year, 90 percent of which is GM.
The current Dutch presidency isn't daft — it will probably will lock away the whole sorry mess, in a too-hot-to-handle cabinet.
