Can science tame politics: The collapse of the new GMO regime in the EU

European Journal of Risk Regulation

Volumn 3, Issue 2, 2012, Pages 190-201

  Paskalev, Vesco ^a  

^a EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE   (Italy)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84893485834     PISSN: 1867299X     EISSN: 21908249     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S1867299X0000204X     Document Type: Article

References (38)

1. Alberto Alemanno, Trade in Food: Regulatory and Judicial Approaches in the EU and the WTO (London: Cameron May, 2007)
2. Mark A. Pollack and Gregory C. Shaffer, When cooperation fails: The international law and politics of genetically modified foods (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).
3. Shane H. Morris and Charles Spillane, "EU GM crop Regulation: A Road to Resolution or a Regulatory Roundabout?", 1 European Journal of Risk Regulation (2010), p. 359 et sqq.
4. Les Levidow and Susan Carr, GM Food on Trial (London: Routledge, 2010), at p. 139.
5. Communication from the Commission - The operating framework for the European Regulatory Agencies, COM (2002/0718 final)
6. Maria Weimer, "Legitimacy through Precaution in European Regulation of GMOs? From the Standpoint of Governance as Analytical Perspective", in Christian Joerges and Poul F. Kjaer (eds.), Transnational Standards of Social Protection Contrasting European and International Governance, vol 5 (ARENA Report No 5/08, RECON Report No 4 2008), p. 161.
7. See Damian Chalmers, "Risk, Anxiety and the European mediation of the Politics of Life", 30 European Law Review (2005), p. 649 et sqq.
8. Regulation 1829/2003/EC on genetically modified food and feed (22 September 2003), hereinafter 'Food and Feed Regulation'.
9. Jane Holder, Maria Lee and Sue Elworthy, Environmental protection, law and policy: Text and materials, 2nd edn. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007)
10. Maria Lee, EU Regulation of GMOs: Law and Decision Making for a New Technology (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2008), at p. 86.
11. Maria Lee, EU regulation of GMOs: Law and decision making for a new technology (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2008)
12. Mark A. Pollack and Gregory Shaffer, "Biotechnology Policy. Between National Fears and Global Disciplines" in Helen Wallace, Mark A. Pollack and Alasdair R. Young (eds.), Policy-making in the European Union, 6th edn. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
13. Deliberate Release Directive, recital 46 and Article 9.
14. Marianna Schauzu, "The European Union's Regulatory Framework" in Michael Baram and Mathilde Bourrier (eds.), Governing Risk in GM Agriculture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
15. Damian Chalmers, "'Food for Thought': Reconciling European Risks and Traditional Ways of Life" 66 Modern Law Review (2003), p. 532 et sqq., at p. 540.
16. Commission Regulation 2230/2004 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Regulation No 178/2002 with regard to the network of organisations operating in the fields within the EFSA's mission (23 December 2004).
17. General Food Law Regulation, art. 30 (2).
18. Marjolein B.A. van Asselt and Ellen Vos, "Wrestling with uncertain risks: EU regulation of GMOs and the uncertainty paradox", Journal of Risk Research (2008), p. 281 et sqq., at p. 284.
19. Amflora Opinion 2005, p. 10. Emphasis added, note how little the language of this scientific assessment differs from that of a moral judgement.
20. Amflora Opinion 2005, p. 11
21. Amflora Opinion 2005, p. 11, emphasis added.
22. William Hamilton, Discussions on philosophy and literature, education, and university reform (Harper & Brothers 1856), p. 580).
23. Nicholas Rescher, Aesthetic factors in natural science (Lanham, MD.:University Press of America, 1990), pp. 3-4.
24. Press release from the 2713th Council Meeting (Environment), 9 March 2006, 6762/06 (Presse 58), available on the Internet at (last accessed on 12 April 2012).
25. Commission press release from 12 April 2006 (IP/06/498) available on the Internet at (last accessed on 12 April 2012).
26. Alyn Smith, MEP (E-0769/2007), available on the Internet at (last accessed on 12 April 2012).
27. EFSA, Opinion of the Scientific Panel on GMO on the use of antibiotic resistance genes as marker genes in genetically modified plants (2004). Hereinafter "ARMG Opinion", p. 11.
28. World Health Organisation, World Health Organisation, Critically Important Antibacterial Agents for Human Medicine for Risk Management Strategies of Non-Human Use. Report of a WHO working group consultation (2005)
29. EFSA, Statement of the Scientific Panel on GMO on the safe use of the nptII antibiotic resistance marker gene in genetically modified plants (2007).
30. Brussels (Berlaymont) on Wednesday 3 March 2010 (PV(2010)1907 final), at p. 23 available on the Internet at , (last accessed on 2 April 2012).
31. For details see Sara Poli, "The Commission's New Approach to the Cultivation of Genetically Modified Organisms", 1 European Journal of Risk Regulation (2010), p. 339 et sqq.
32. See Euractiv, Paper reveals EU plan to boost GM crop cultivation, published on 4 May 2010, available on the Internet at (last accessed on 2 April 2012).
33. The scope and the grounds of such bans are still debated and merit separate article.
34. 'GMOs: EU's legislation on the right track, evaluation reports conclude,' European Commission press release, 28 October 2011, available on the Internet at (last accessed on 2 April 2012).
35. Case T-240/10, Hungary v. European Commission, action brought on 27 May 2010.
36. This leaves the maze MON 810 (authorized in 1998 under the old regime) the only GM crop currently grown in Europe.
37. Alberto Alemanno, "EU Risk Regulation and Science: The Role of Experts in Decision-making and Judicial Review", in Ellen Vos (ed.), European Risk Governance: Its Science, its Inclusiveness and its Effectiveness, vol 6 (Mannheim: CONNEX 2008), at p. 47.
38. Christian Joerges and Jurgen Neyer, "From Intergovernmental Bargaining to Deliberative Political Processes: The Constitutionalisation of Comitology", 3 European Law Journal (1997), p. 273 et sqq.