EU Parliament votes against further approvals of GE plants

17 December 2020 / Today the EU Parliament adopted by a large majority several resolutions proposed by the Greens/EFA Group against further EU market approvals of genetically engineered plants. Five applications were filed by Bayer (Monsanto) and Syngenta for maize and soybeans that are resistant to herbicides and/or produce insecticides.

The EU Parliament has adopted more than 50 resolutions since December 2015 against new import approvals for GE plants. However, these votes are not binding for the EU Commission, which approved all of these GE plants for import. According to Testbiotech, the renewed strong evidence for huge gaps in EFSA risk assessment cannot be ignored in the upcoming decision-making.

Just recently, Testbiotech revealed that Bt proteins expressed in genetically engineered (GE) plants are significantly more toxic than natural Bt toxins. These findings were not taken into account by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Testbiotech has therefore written to the EU Commission demanding that current approval processes are stopped and substantially revised.

Contact:
Christoph Then, info@testbiotech.org, Tel + 49 (0) 151 54638040