The first application discussed was for GM maize MON863 (resistant to maize rootworm). The intended use of the maize was for feed, importation and processing. Since qualified majority of votes was not attained, decision-making was delegated to the Council of Ministers who will have three months to react. There were 133 votes in favour of the decision, 123 votes against and 65 votes abstained from voting. In order to adopt a decision, the number of votes – either for or against – has to be at least 232. According to the recommendation of the Gene Technology Committee and the consent of the Minister, Estonia voted in favour of the decision. In addition to this, eight draft decisions of the European Commission were discussed with the aim to lift national prohibitions against various GMOs (such as maize T25, maize MON810, maize Bt176, rape Topas19/12 and rape MS1BnxRF1Bn) in Austria, France, Luxemburg, Greece and Germany. These types of GMOs were allowed on the EU market from 1996 to 1998 by a decision of the European Commission. The European Commission wished that these countries would stop the prohibitions as they violated the rules of free trade. The voting on this matter was similar. The qualified majority of votes was not attained for any decision and decision-making was delegated to the Council of Ministers who will have three months to react in this case, too. Estonia abstained from voting on these eight drafts because these GMOs were allowed to enter the market of the European Union before the accession of Estonia and the Gene Technology Committee could not process old applications for authorisation and complaints of countries with only one month’s notice. Therefore, the Minister was advised to abstain from voting. Several Member States complained about the fact that their proposal to postpone the voting was disregarded. They wanted to postpone the voting until the year 2006 when all old applications for authorisation would be revised anyway. Besides this, they hoped to wait for the opinion of the WTO (World Trade Organisation) on these complaints. In the Regulatory Committee of the Directive (2001/18 EC) on genetically modified organisms (GMO), Estonia has four votes. Bigger countries such as Germany and Great Britain have 29 votes. Altogether there are 321 votes in the Committee. Further information: Lilika Käis Chief Specialist of the Nature Conservation Department, Ministry of the Environment Phone (+372) 626 2877 Press Representative of the Ministry of the Environment Phone (+372) 626 2993; (+372) 521 2602 E-mail: |
