Brussels, Belgium
April 27, 2016

In an open letter, EuropaBio urges the President of the EU Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, to end the Commission’s maladministration on genetically modified (GM) food and feed. The letter was sent on 27 April 2016, the day on which new Commission delays in the handling of authorisation applications turned into clear maladministration.

The European Ombudsman decided on 19 January 2016 that the Commission's previous delays in authorising safety-assessed import applications for GM food and feed “reflected a systemic problem” and constituted maladministration. The Ombudsman confirmed that, between 2012 and 2014, the Commission regularly failed to comply with the existing legal requirements for putting GM products to vote within the specified time frame, and also waited too long - three and a half months on average - to grant authorisation following the Appeal Committee stage. These three and a half months are now up again for three soya bean products currently at the very final stage of the EU’s long and politicized authorisation process.

·         Read the letter

·         Find out more about the Ombudsman’s Decision

·         Find out more about the new Commission delays

Website: http://www.europabio.org

Published: April 27, 2016