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having regard to the draft Commission implementing decision renewing the authorisation for the placing on the market of products containing, consisting of or produced from genetically modified cotton LLCotton25 (ACS-GHØØ1-3) pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council (D061870/04,

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having regard to Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 September 2003 on genetically modified food and feed (1), and in particular Articles 11(3) and 23(3) thereof,

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having regard to the vote of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health referred to in Article 35 of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003, on 30 April 2019, at which no opinion was delivered, and to the vote of the Appeal Committee on 5 June 2019, at which again no opinion was delivered,

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having regard to Articles 11 and 13 of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 2011 laying down the rules and general principles concerning mechanisms for control by Member States of the Commission’s exercise of implementing powers (2),

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having regard to the opinion adopted by the European Food Safety Authority on 6 December 2006, and published on 14 December 2006 (3),

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having regard to the opinion in relation to renewal adopted by the European Food Safety Authority on 17 October 2018, and published on 14 November 2018 (4),

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having regard to its previous resolutions objecting to the authorisation of genetically modified organisms (‘GMOs’) (5),

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having regard to Rule 112(2) and (3) of its Rules of Procedure,

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having regard to the motion for a resolution of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety;

A.

whereas, Commission Decision 2008/837/EC (6) authorised the placing on the market of food and feed containing, consisting of, or produced from genetically modified cotton LLCotton25 (‘LLCotton25’);

B.

whereas, on 2 October 2017, the initial authorisation holder, Bayer CropScience AG (the ‘applicant’), submitted to the Commission an application, in accordance with Articles 11 and 23 of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003, for the renewal of that authorisation;

C.

whereas, on 17 October 2018, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) adopted a favourable opinion, which was published on 14 November 2018 (7);

D.

whereas Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 states that genetically modified (GM) food or feed must not have adverse effects on human health, animal health or the environment, and requires the Commission to take into account any relevant provisions of Union law and other legitimate factors relevant to the matter under consideration when drafting its decision;

E.

whereas LLCotton25 has been made tolerant to glufosinate-based herbicides (8);

F.

whereas while the human consumption of cottonseed oil may be relatively limited in Europe, it can be found in a wide variety of food products, including dressings, mayonnaise, fine bakery wares, chocolate spreads and chips; whereas cotton is fed to animals mainly in the form of cottonseed cake/meal or as full fat cottonseeds (9);

G.

whereas Member States submitted many critical comments to EFSA during the three-month consultation period, both in regard to the original assessment and the one for renewal (10); whereas these include that the effects of glufosinate residues and metabolites were not considered, that it is debatable whether the results of the toxicity test can be considered correct, that neither allergenicity nor toxicology has been thoroughly assessed, that monitoring reports produced by the applicant do not provide any data to support the conclusions that there have been no adverse health or environmental effects associated with the import and use of LLCotton25 and that the general surveillance plan proposed by the applicant does not meet the requirements of Annex VII to Directive 2001/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (11);

H.

whereas EFSA, in response to Member State comments, has repeatedly stated that it considers that further discussion between applicants and the Commission as risk manager is needed on the practical implementation of the PMEM for GM plants for import and processing;

I.

whereas a number of studies show that herbicide-tolerant GM crops result in a higher use of those herbicides, in large part because of the emergence of herbicide-tolerant weeds (12); whereas, as a consequence, it has to be expected that crops of LLCotton25 will be exposed to both higher and repeated doses of glufosinate which will potentially lead to a higher quantity of residues in the harvest;

J.

whereas whilst LLCotton25 was initially authorised for import in 2008, the approval of glufosinate for use in the Union expired on 31 July 2018 (13); whereas glufosinate is classified as toxic to reproduction 1B and thus meets the ‘cut-off criteria’ set out in Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council (14);

K.

whereas assessment of herbicide residues and their metabolites on GM plants is considered outside the remit of the EFSA Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms and is therefore not undertaken as part of the authorisation process for GMOs; whereas this is problematic since the way that complementary herbicides are broken down by GM plants, and the composition and thus toxicity of the break-down products (‘metabolites’), can be driven by the genetic modification itself (15);

L.

whereas, under Regulation (EC) No 396/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council (16), which aims to ensure a high level of consumer protection in relation to maximum residue levels (‘MRLs’), the residues on imported crops for food and feed of active substances which are not authorised for use in the Union, such as glufosinate, should be carefully controlled and monitored (17);

M.

whereas, on the contrary, under the latest coordinated multiannual control programme of the Union (for 2020, 2021 and 2022), Member States are not obliged to measure glufosinate residues on any products, including cotton (18); whereas it cannot be excluded that LLCotton25 or products derived from it for food and feed will exceed MRLs, which have been put in place to ensure a high level of consumer protection;

N.

whereas EFSA found that the estimated operator exposure to glufosinate when used for weed control in GM maize exceeded the acceptable operator exposure level (AOEL) even when personal protective equipment was used (19); whereas, operator exposure is particularly concerning given the higher volumes of herbicides used on herbicide-tolerant GM crops

O.

whereas a recent report by the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the right to food found that, hazardous pesticides have catastrophic impacts on health, with pesticides responsible for an estimated 200,000 acute poisoning deaths each year, 99 per cent of which occur in developing countries (20); whereas Target 3.9 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which the Union has signed up to, aims to, by 2030, substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water and soil pollution and contamination (21);

P.

whereas the vote on 30 April 2019 of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health referred to in Article 35 of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 delivered no opinion, meaning that the authorisation was not supported by a qualified majority of Member States; whereas, the vote on 5 June 2019 of the Appeal Committee also delivered no opinion;

Q.

whereas the Commission recognises that the fact that GMO authorisation decisions continue to be adopted by the Commission without a qualified majority of Member States in favour, which is very much the exception for product authorisations as a whole but has become the norm for decision-making on GM food and feed authorisations, is problematic (22); whereas that practice has, on several occasions, been deplored by the Commission President as not being democratic (23);

R.

whereas, in its eighth term, the European Parliament adopted a total of 36 resolutions objecting to the placing on the market of GMOs for food and feed (33 resolutions) and to the cultivation of GMOs in the Union (three resolutions); whereas there was not a qualified majority of Member States in favour of authorising any of those GMOs; whereas despite its own acknowledgement of the democratic shortcomings, the lack of support from Member States and the objections of Parliament, the Commission continues to authorise GMOs;

S.

whereas no change of law is required for the Commission to be able not to authorise GMOs when there is no qualified majority of Member States in favour in the Appeal Committee (24);

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

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European Parliament resolution of 10 October 2019 on the draft Commission implementing decision authorising the placing on the market of products containing, consisting of or produced from genetically modified maize MZHG0JG (SYN-ØØØJG-2), pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Texts adopted, P9_TA(2019)0028).

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European Parliament resolution of 10 October 2019 on the draft Commission implementing decision renewing the authorisation for the placing on the market of products containing, consisting of or produced from genetically modified soybean A2704-12 (ACS-GMØØ5-3) pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Texts adopted, P9_TA(2019)0029).

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European Parliament resolution of 10 October 2019 on the draft Commission implementing decision authorising the placing on the market of products containing, consisting of or produced from genetically modified maize MON 89034 × 1507 × MON 88017 × 59122 × DAS-40278-9 and genetically modified maize combining two, three or four of the single events MON 89034, 1507, MON 88017, 59122 and DAS-40278-9 pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Texts adopted, P9_TA(2019)0030).