May 3, 2005

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Genetic Engineering Act comes into force

Site register: 1000 hectares of Bt maize

(03/02) With today’s publication in the Federal Law Gazette (Bundesgesetzblatt), Germany’s new Genetic Engineering Act, passed by the Bundestag at the end of November, has entered into force. At the same time, the site register stipulated in the Act has been opened to the public. So far, 92 sites with a total area of around 1000 hectares have been registered. They are intended for cultivation with MON810 Bt maize varieties.

The new German Genetic Engineering Act (section 16a) stipulates a national register listing all sites on which genetically modified plants are released or cultivated.

The compulsory registration of all release and cultivation sites is designed to

• enable better monitoring and observation of potential impacts of released GM plants.
• enable farmers to find out from the register whether GM plants are being cultivated in the neighbourhood. If this is the case, farms can come to agreements to avoid possible GMO contamination of conventional plants of the same crop type.
• enable conventional farms to determine, based on the registry data, whether there are in fact any farms cultivating GM plants in their area.

Farmers must register their intentions with the responsible Bundesamt für Verbraucherschutz und Lebensmittelsicherheit (BVL) no earlier than nine months and no later than three months before sowing.

The public part of the register lists the location, title number and area of the GMO field as well as the GM crop in question. The register currently lists 92 sites with a total area of around 1000 hectares. All are intended for Bt maize (MON810) cultivation.

Further regulations

The entry into force of the Genetic Engineering Act is not, however, the end of the discussion. More legal provisions have to be drawn up. For some of these, the government needs the agreement of the federal states, most of which are against the red-green ideas.

• On 2 February the federal cabinet passed a “genetic engineering monitoring regulation” put forward by consumer protection minister Renate Künast. This obliges companies that sell GMO products to carry out monitoring after they are placed on the market to determine whether they produce unforeseen harmful effects on the environment or health.
• According to an announcement by Renate Künast, she intends to submit the overdue regulation on “good farming practice” for the cultivation of GM plants before the sowing season in the spring. The regulation is supposed to set out concrete rules to be observed when cultivating GM plants. Separation distances between GM and conventional crops are particularly contentious. This regulation needs the approval of the Bundesrat.
• The second part of the new Genetic Engineering Act has not been passed yet either. The first part which has just entered into force covers only those passages that could be passed without Bundesrat approval. The remaining sections, particularly regulations for the authorisation and monitoring of genetic engineering sites, require approval by the majority of federal states. The two parts, which were originally combined in one act, were separated in the spring so that the regulations on coexistence in particular could be passed by the red-green majority in the Bundestag, without having to wait for Bundesrat approval.

The federal state of Saxony Anhalt has once again announced that it intends to contest the Genetic Engineering Act before the Federal Constitutional Court. The action is due to be filed at the end of February. Saxony Anhalt’s minister for economic affairs, Rehberger, hopes that more federal states will support the action.

Brussels: EU coexistence rules after all?

New thinking in Brussels could also put the Genetic Engineering Act back on the agenda. During Green Week in Berlin the new EU agricultural commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel intimated that there had been a shift in thinking on coexistence. Until now, the Commission had produced only guidelines on coexistence, leaving the statutory arrangements to the member states. Now Fischer Boel wants to check whether an EU-wide binding regulation on coexistence would be more suitable for ensuring uniform conditions. “But the rules must not be so harsh that producers of GM crops stand no chance on the market”, says Fischer Boel.