Jul 11, 2003

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Schleswig-Holstein launches initiative for a new Genetic Engineering Act

Kiel goes first

(11 July) Today in the Bundesrat the regional government of Schleswig-Holstein proposed a bill amending the Genetic Engineering Act. According to Schleswig-Holstein’s environment minister, Klaus Müller, the aim is to secure freedom of choice for consumers and farmers and to make coexistence between GM and non-GM farming possible.

Transposition of EU Directive

The priority is to transpose the EU Deliberate Release Directive 2001/18 into German law as soon as possible. Germany has been behind schedule on this since October 2002 and the European Commission has already opened infringement proceedings. However, the regional government in Kiel is also proposing additional legislation on coexistence and liability. The guiding principle is the polluter-pays principle: farmers who grow genetically modified crops should be obliged to limit their spread and transgenic outcrossings “as far as possible”. “Good farming practice for GM farming” is to be defined in a regulation.

Pollen contamination = material damage

However, if, for instance, pollen from GM crops is carried to an adjacent field, thereby restricting use of the field, the GM farmer should pay for the damage. Contamination with pollen from GM crops would be classed as material damage.

• To this end, § 1 of the Genetic Engineering Act is to be worded in such a way that material assets must in future be protected “in substance and function” against potential dangers of genetic engineering processes and products.
• In addition, under § 32, liability is to be extended to damage to the “substance or function” of an asset.

The bill explains that according to the case-law of the administrative courts to date, protection of property does not cover the prevention of transgenic incrossings if these are not otherwise associated with harmful genetic changes.

Public cultivation register

Another key point of the Schleswig-Holstein initiative is the introduction of a public cultivation register. The idea is that anyone who wants to plant genetically modified seed would have to notify a central recording office of the fact before sowing, giving the location of the plots. According to the bill’s statement of reasons, this is intended to facilitate neighbourly agreements between farmers. The reallocation of responsibilities for GMO authorisations recently passed by the Bundestag is also mentioned in the Schleswig-Holstein bill.

Catalyst

The Bundesrat has passed the bill to its expert committees. It is their job to draw up a recommendation for a decision concerning the bill. It is, however, unlikely that this initiative will actually lead to an amendment of the Genetic Engineering Act.

Its significance lies more in its political symbolism: the red-green coalition in Kiel exercising friendly pressure on the red-green coalition in Berlin to finally present the much-announced thorough revision of the Genetic Engineering Act. The bill is due to be presented to the German government by the autumn. Time is pressing. But it is not only in the matter of transposing the amended EU Deliberate Release Directive that the German government is dragging its heels – it also needs to act because the European Commission intends to lift the moratorium on the authorisation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) this year. “I hope that our bill will help speed up the process of transposing the Deliberate Release Directive,” Schleswig-Holstein’s environment minister explained in Berlin.