18 April 2006 - The EU has admitted having serious concerns over the safety and environmental impact of GM crops in a dossier of scientific evidence sent to World Trade Organisation investigators.

MEPs and green groups have called for an immediate suspension of the use and sale of any GM crops after the report admitted there were ‘large areas of uncertainty’ as to the effects of GMOs on both human health and the environment, and that ‘there simply is no way of ascertaining whether the introduction of GM crops has had any… …effect on human health’.

Caroline Lucas, South-East England ’s Green Party Euro-MP, said: “This latest evidence is absolutely shocking. Not only does it reveal the depth of uncertainty – and therefore potential risks – surrounding GM, it makes plain as day the unpalatable fact that the EU Commission has been well aware of these concerns whilst authorising new GM products for sale and growth.”

Though the documents were presented to the WTO by EU officials in defence of their now-defunct de facto GM-ban, the EU has since approved seven new GM foods and 31 further varieties of Monsanto’s GM maize.

The dossier was obtained following a Freedom of Information Act request by Friends of the Earth and can be viewed at http://www.foeeurope.org/biteback/EC_case.htm

Dr Lucas added: “This has the makings of a full-scale EU-wide food safety scandal and the European Commission must halt the sale and import of all GM crops and products in the EU until its fears over the crops’ uncertain effects on health and the environment have been allayed.”

ENDS