Mar 18, 2005

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Second Genetic Engineering Act:

Starting again?

(18 March) Against the votes of the opposition, the Bundestag has today passed the second amending law on the Genetic Engineering Act. Two days previously the Bundestag’s consumer committee had introduced surprise changes to the original bill, making the site register for the cultivation of genetically modified crops only partially accessible to the public. At around the time the Bundestag was voting, the Bundesrat (upper house) announced that it continues to reject the first part of the amendment, which came into effect in February. The federal states will probably make their approval of the second part of the Act contingent on fundamental changes to the first part.

Since February it has been possible to go to the internet site of the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) and access the site register giving precise plot details of all GMO cultivation sites. The Bundestag has now decided to partially revoke this provision. The publicly accessible part of the register should in future give only the municipality and local sub-district in which the fields are located.

Only farmers and beekeepers who have a legitimate interest through being immediate neighbours can request further information from the regional authorities responsible.

With this amendment, the red-green coalition in Berlin is really making a concession to some SPD-run states which, like the opposition politicians and CDU/CSU-run states, had criticised the public register. They are worried that opponents of genetic engineering could use the information to destroy fields or intimidate GMO farmers.

Bundesrat continues to reject the Act

Whether this concession will persuade the federal states to approve the second part of the Genetic Engineering Act without pushing through further amendments to the first part is extremely doubtful.

In another resolution passed on Friday, the Bundesrat specifically reaffirmed its rejection of the first part of the Genetic Engineering Act, which in its view is “hostile to innovation and damaging to growth,” particularly in its liability provisions, and “cannot ensure the coexistence demanded by the EU”.

The federal states further remind the government of the “six-point statement” put on record by consumer protection minister Renate Künast last October in the Bundesrat. In this statement she announced that she would re-examine individual contentious points. With this statement she secured the votes of the SPD-run states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Rhineland Palatinate.

The Bundesrat now wants to know what measures the government has taken in this regard and demands that it report on the results by 1 May.

The trick with the two Genetic Engineering Acts

The first package of amendments to the Genetic Engineering Act came into force at the beginning of February. Now the government has to revise the Act a second time. Only then will the implementation of several EU directives in national law, which has been overdue since October 2002, be complete. As a result of this missed deadline, the European Commission has referred Germany to court for failure to fulfil its obligations. Germany now risks serious fines. And the longer it takes for the EU directives to be fully implemented, the higher the fines will be.

But for this to happen, the majority in the Bundesrat must approve the second Genetic Engineering Act. The Bundesrat is using this situation to apply pressure on the government to unravel the first package of legislation again.

The red-green ruling coalition divided the original amending law into two parts in the summer of 2004. It was possible to pass the first part containing the particularly contentious regulations on liability and coexistence without the approval of the Bundesrat and this has been in force since February. The second part contains the remaining regulations, which fall within the competence of the federal states and can therefore be adopted only with the approval of the Bundesrat.

Genetic engineering production facilities: notification not registration

The second part of the Act mainly contains procedural issues for work in genetic engineering facilities. Since the amendments have largely been prescribed by the EU, there is little scope for creativity.

For genetic engineering work at the lowest security level, the bill proposes a simplified notification procedure. Research and production facilities with genetically modified organisms that are known to be safe could then start work as soon as the operating company had notified the facilities to the relevant authorities. Until now, such facilities had to be ‘registered’, which takes longer. For the other provisions, however, the notification procedure is no different from the registration procedure. For instance, the same documents must be submitted to the authorities in both instances.

The opposition parties see a need for alterations to various sections of the second part of the Act. But this bill is far less contentious that the first part, which may now have to be renegotiated.

New rounds in the mediation committee?

Now that it has been passed by the Bundestag, the bill will be sent to the Bundesrat. If the federal states reject it, the Genetic Engineering Act will have to go back to the mediation committee.