Hungarian opposition: Hungary GMO-free status at risk

Hungary’s GMO-free status continues to be at risk despite a recent vote in the EU’s Agriculture and Fisheries Council rejecting draft legislation which would exempt new genomic techniques (NGTs) from strict GMO regulations, the co-leader of green opposition LMP said on Thursday.

The proposal backed by chemical industry lobbyists failed in a first round of voting on Monday, Erzsébet Schmuck told an online press briefing. “But that lobby is aggressively pushing its agenda and wants to have another round of voting held on the exemption before Christmas, and it has found several politicians as allies in those efforts,” she said.

If passed with a qualified majority, the legislation would scrap the labelling requirement of products, Schmuck said. As a result, farmers, traders and consumers would no longer be able to choose GMO-free products, she said. “Control over seed production would also end up in the hands of agribusiness players, which would seriously jeopardise the autonomy of farmers and agricultural biodiversity,” Schmuck said.