BRUSSELS--The only way the European Union's de facto moratorium on new GM seeds is likely to be lifted is for U.S. farmers to be required to segregate genetically modified crops from those grown from traditional seeds, say officials from the European Commission, some EU member states, and a nongovernmental organization. Commission officials say mandatory segregation of GM crops is necessary because the blocking minority of EU member states is demanding that new labeling, traceability, and accompanying liability schemes be put in place before it allows any new approval of GM seeds.

France, Italy, Denmark, Greece, and Luxembourg are the EU member states leading the moratorium.

Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström has criticized the de facto moratorium as illegal and has unsuccessfully called for it to be lifted. No new GM seeds have been authorized in the EU for more than two years. The United States has lost more than $200 million in corn exports because of the de facto moratorium.

Segregation 'Only Way' to Resolve Problem

"When analyzing how to meet all the demands of the blocking countries in the EU, source segregation by farmers, especially in the United States, is the only way we can see this problem being resolved," said a commission official, who spoke to BNA Oct. 5-6 on condition of anonymity. "It is not a position we are happy with, and it certainly is not the commission's official position but it does seem to be the only way out of the situation we are in." Officials in France and Denmark as well as representatives of Greenpeace also insisted that source segregation of GM crops was required to meet their demands on traceability, labeling, and liability.

"If there is to be an effective labeling and traceability scheme, you have to have source segregation," Lorenzo Consoli, a Greenpeace spokesman, told BNA Oct. 6. "And in order to have a workable, effective liability scheme, there need to be traceability and labeling schemes."

GMO Directive

The commission assessment that source segregation is the only way to break the deadlock on genetically modified organisms in the EU comes on the eve of passage of a revised EU Directive 90/220 on Deliberate Release of Genetically Modified Organisms, which took more than five years to negotiate (INER Reference File 4, 191:0301). The EU member states and the European Parliament are scheduled to begin a Conciliation Committee negotiation Nov. 19 to work out differences in the legislation.

Because the revised legislation approved by both the EP and the Council of Ministers does not have liability or traceability schemes, the five blocking EU member states are insisting they will not lift the de facto moratorium.

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