Bulgarian MEPs and environmentalists lobby in European Parliament for GMO-free Bulgaria

With the recent amendments to the Bulgarian GMO Act, the GMO-free Bulgaria national campaign had a triumphant victory. Without officially declaring the country a GMO-free territory, which is not allowed by EU legislation, the new regulations in the Bulgarian GMO Act are written in such a way that there is virtually no place for growing GMO in Bulgaria. There is an explicit ban on introducing genetically modified variants of 6 crops that are strategic for Bulgaria’s agriculture – these are cereals, fruit, vegetables, roses, tobacco and cotton. In addition to this, GMOs cannot be raised in a 30-km radius near the territories included in Natura 2000 network. In a country where this network covers almost one third of the territory, there is virtually no place for growing GMOs.
In fact, restrictions on growing GM crops existed also in the former GMO Act that was adopted before the latest quite liberal amendments to the EU directives regulating this issue. The campaign in Bulgaria was actually targeted at preserving the more restrictive Bulgarian legislation unchaged. The only essential change is that now scientific experiments with GMO are allowed, but only under laboratory conditions. Bulgaria has received criticism from the EU in this respect.
There are, however, several debatable points in applying such a restrictive law within the framework of a much more liberal EU legislation. The risk of sanctions on behalf of the European Commission looks realistic although so far this has not happened. Other countries such as Ireland and Cyprus have passed acts virtually banning the growing of any GM crops, relying on the lack of a single position in the EU regarding this rather delicate topic. Within the framework of the discussion that started in March on these issues, Bulgarian MEPs have been lobbying for even greater rights of each member states to decide whether to allow or not the use of biotechnology in their farming, observing a principle of cautiousness.
So far, the EU has officially allowed the raising of two types of GMO maize (corn) and since very recently, one type of potato. Currently, only 5 countries grow genetically modified crops – Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Portugal, and Spain, and the territories with GMO are increasingly shrinking, says Borislav Sandov from the GMO-free Bulgaria coalition and member of the Greens Political Party.

“Last year, the drop in GM crops raising in Romania was 57%, in Slovakia – 54%, in the Czech Republic – 31%, and in Spain – 4%. Only the Jose Barroso’s homeland Portugal there has been a 7% increase. Germany and France, the two biggest EU member states, as well as Poland do not grow any GMOs any more. This unambiguously shows that Europe is not only divided on this issue but that the number of those who are against is growing stronger. And if some countries have already made the mistake of allowing these crops into their lands, luckily Bulgaria hasn’t and this is our chance. Globally, there is a slight increase in GMO raising at the expense of one country only – Brazil which is cutting down its Amazon rainforest often described as “the lungs of our planet”, to grow genetically modified rapeseed and use it to produce biofuel. What is more, more than 90% of genetically modified crops in the world are grown outside Europe – mainly in the USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, China and India. And in this sense, it is ridiculous to talk about competitiveness of Europe in this field. We would rather be morecompetitive on the global bioproducts market which is rapidly expanding”, Blagovest Sandov says.

The majority of Bulgarian farmers opt exactly for this strategic choice, Mr. Milen Sotyanov from the Bulgarian Association Bioproducts, says:

“Bulgaria has committed to have 8% of all farmland to be covered with bioproducts by 2013. So far, they are only 0,16%. In case we allow GMOs to penetrate the farmland, organic agriculture would be doomed because lands that have been used to grow GMOs, automatically become unsuitable for organic farming. There is no certificate-issuing body that might issue a bio-certificate for territories where genetically modified crops have been grown before. There are also serious economic considerations for which farmers refuse to grow GMOs. The price of GM seeds and pesticides are constantly growing. And what is more, since EU residents are reluctant to eat GM foods, the price of these products is expected to keep falling.”
Bulgarian environmentalists have their arguments against the general opinion that biotechnology will save humanity from starvation. So far, GMOs have been used mostly for fodder crops and for the production of fuels.

“Only 1% of GM crops are used for foodс”, Borislav Sandov says. “We can easily see that starving African countries are not really present on the map of GMO farming, except for the South African Republic, Egypt, and Burkina Faso. For the past 15 years, when GM crops started to be used commercially, only 1% of them have been raised for foods.”
As an authoritative sociological survey shows, 97% of Bulgarians are against using GMOs in farming. Leading European political parties have also taken this stand. Bulgarians havereached a rarely seen consensus on this issue and Bulgarian MEPs are actively taking part in the EU debate on allowing more independence to countries in choosing whether to introducе GMOs and to what extent. This debate is expected to find a conclusion by the end of the summer and result in amendments to the currently applied EU directives.

Translated by: Rossitsa Petcova

Share

Bulgarian MEPs and environmentalists lobby in European Parliament for GMO-free Bulgaria

More from category

The Bulgarian - European: At home both here and there

Education, demography, healthcare are among major risks for Bulgaria, shows study

How much will Bulgarians spend this Easter?

Education, demography, healthcare are among major risks for Bulgaria, shows study

The Bulgarian - European: At home both here and there