Bt-corn can be planted again - The government's slaloms

On the 20th of February the green party controlled Ministry of health withdrew the authorisation of non-objection issued by the Robert Koch Institute for Novartis Bt-corn by the use of a directive upon the Institute. This move was forced because Bt-corn (Novartis) was about to be recognised as a variety by the Bundessortenamt (Federal Plant Varieties Agency). Through this decision not only the judicial ground for the cultivar recognition was removed, but the absolutely necessary small area plantings for biological safety research were also therefore considered illegal. If this decision had been made during the growing season all of the Bt-corn in the fields would have had to be immediately destroyed.

Judicial Status from the 19th of February 2000

Until the 19th of February 2000 the planting of large unlimited areas of Bt-corn (Novartis) was allowed in Germany under the "Gentechnikgesetz" (the national transfer of the European Directive 90/220). As long as the cultivar is not recognised as a variety under the German law of variety authorisation the planting of the crop is limited to small areas - independent of the breeding method used for the variety - whereby nation wide a size of approximately 500 hectares is allowed (12 t of seeds). The Bundes-sortenamt had, in the last few years, tested Novartis's petition to recognise Bt-corn as a variety using the usual criteria for the judicial decision. In the case of a transgenic variety the testings by the Bun-dessortenamt is based on a safety authorisation for humans, animals, and the environment, in accor-dance with the Gentechnikgesetz by the Robert Koch Institute.

Judicial status between the 19th of February and the 31st of March 2000.

Two days before the recognition of Bt-corn as a variety the Federal Ministry of Health withdrew the authorisation of non-objection that had been issued by the Robert Koch Institute on the basis of Para-graph 16 of the Gentechnikgesetz, whereby a variety recognition was made judicially impossible. This decision was officially justified with new scientific results from a summarised literature study pub-lished by the Freiburger Ökoinstitut (Institute for Ecology, Freiburg), and two older laboratory studies that had been published in Nature, that reported on a questionable link between Bt-corn and harm to non-target insects. These data allowed, in the opinion of the Health Ministry, the application of para-graph 16 and therefore the removal of the authorisation of non-objection. A further, openly hardly discussed argument was that through the cultivar recognition there was the possibility of large area plantings which could increase the problems that had not yet been fully studied and identified. The only judicial possibility to stop the variety recognition was the use of the emergency paragraph of the gene technology law.

Judicial Situation since the 31st of March 2000.

In the end however the cultivation of small area test plantings of Bt-corn lay in the interest of the gov-ernment, especially the SPD controlled Research and Trade Ministries. It was known that since the middle of March the government began to search for ways to allow the cultivation of experimental plots. However, the presupposition for these plantings is the issuance of a new authorisation of non-objection from the Robert Koch Institute. Last Friday (31st of March) the Robert Koch Institute pub-lished an amendment that allowed the planting of 12 t of Bt-corn seed (which means around 500 ha) in Germany for experimental purposes.

Therefore is everything back to the way it was, although the judicial basis has been changed. Until February the cultivar recognition was the limiting factor, now it is the Gentechnikgesetz. In the end the European Commission has to decide if the position of the German government has judicial right and then and should the occasion arise request the government to countermand the decision that was made in February. In reality this will most likely occur differently, as could be seen from the examples of Austria and Luxembourg. In 1997 these countries also put an import ban upon Bt-corn, that the Com-mission deemed judicially unfounded and issued a directive that this import prohibition be counter-manded. To date nothing has happened. The Committee for Environment, Natural Protection and Re-actor safety, with the vote of the federal government's coalition partners recommended in 1999 that the European Commission should tolerate the Austrian and Luxembourg national bans upon the use and sale of genetically engineered corn". It can therefore be expected that the Commission will accept the slalom tactics of the German government as well. The scientific facts have nevertheless been lost among the politic manoeuvrings.

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