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“View of Asynchronous
Approvals from the EU”
Rosario, 17 September 2012
Beat Späth, Public Affairs Manager,
Green Biotechnology, EuropaBio
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Contents
I. Four global trends
II. The EU’s import dependence
III. The EU approvals backlog
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I. Four global trends
Trend 1:
More GM cultivation in more countries
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I. Four global trends
Trend 2:
More crops, more traits
Current numbers and estimations of future numbers of GM crops worldwide Source: Nature Biotechnology (2010) 28, 23-25
International trade and the global pipeline of new GM crops
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I. Four global trends
Trend 3:
More global commodity trade
Millions of tonnes of grain traded globally
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I. Four global trends
Trend 4:
Widening transatlantic gap on GM approval timelines
Country
Approval
Ambition for next
timeline (2011) years
Comments
Argentina
18 months
Cut timeline by 50%
Timeline concerns
single events,
stacks somewhat
longer
US
25 months
Aims for 18 months
Brazil
27 months
Canada
30 months
EU
45 months
No stated ambition to speed
up. Upcoming new
requirements may slow down
Timeline concerns
import approvals
Approach to stacks
= problematic
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II. The EU’s dependence on imports
EU Commission – Mapping Agri-Trade Policy (May 2012)
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II. The EU’s dependence on imports
Produced from EU soybeans 0.8 mil tons
2%
66%
Produced from imported
soybeans 11mil ton
32%
Imported soybean
meal 23 mil tons
• Only 2% of soybean
consumption in the EU is
produced from soybeans
grown in the EU.
• Soy imports and domestic
= 35mlnt/year (about 60kg
per EU citizen)
• 90% of imported soy is
from biotech crops.
• Non-GM soy difficult &
costly to source.
Source: USDA, ACTI
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II. The EU’s dependence on imports
Study on the Implications of Asynchronous GMO Approvals for EU
Imports, on behalf of the EU Commission Directorate-General for
Agriculture (December 2010)
• “In the long run, the full segregation of commodities in exporting
countries is almost impossible” (EU authorized from EU unauthorized
GMOs)
• “…The demand for maize and soybean, and their derived products, is
growing rapidly … the relative importance of the EU market…
inevitably diminishes. This will discourage efforts by producers and
traders in exporting countries to invest in segregating EU approved
from non-approved GM material and to continue trading with the EU.”
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III. The EU approvals backlog
State of Play EU Approvals - 3 Sept 2012:
• 47 GM crop products are authorised in total
• 75 GM crop products in the authorisation system
• twice as many products enter the system than exit it (average ’04 -’12)
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III. The EU approvals backlog
Average duration of GM imports authorisation.
45 months
Undue delays at political stage:
11 months on average between EFSA opinion and
first vote. The law prescribes 3 months.
Accumulated undue delay: 37 years
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“Approvals of GMOs in the European Union”. Report available from EuropaBio.
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III. The EU approvals backlog
•
EU Authorisation system is not working as it should
–
–
Some EU governments vote against EFSA scientific advice for political reasons
For cultivation, the agreed process has never been correctly implemented
•
Significant backlog continues to grow
•
EU process takes substantially longer than comparable systems
•
Slow process cannot be explained by safety concerns alone
– Commission routinely delays political votes (11 months on average instead of
legally prescribed 3 months)
– New assessment requirements lacking scientific basis are introduced
– New requirements are applied retroactively
•
Efficiency gains possible on risk assessment for stacked products
 Crisis management rather than forward looking policies
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____________________________________________________________________________________________
“
“Approvals of GMOs in the European Union”.
Report available from EuropaBio.
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Thank you for your attention!
Questions?
Beat Späth, Public Affairs Manager,
Green Biotechnology, EuropaBio
[email protected]
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