VIDEO INTERVIEWS
AGNES CICCARONE
Agnes Ciccarone, from France, is the Director of the Assembly of European Regions (AER) Committee for Regional Policies, Agriculture and Sustainable Rural Development. The AER is a political organisation of the regions of Europe and their spokesperson at the European and international level. Its mission is to bring together the regions of Europe and to allow them to act in the construction of Europe and European integration. The AER currently has 250 member Regions from 30 countries and 12 member interregional organisations.
On 14 September 2004 at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, the Assembly of European Regions (AER) and Friends of the Earth Europe (FOEE) launched their joint campaign in favour of the preservation and the promotion of traditional agriculture and products of designated origin in Europe. At its first stage, this long term campaign aims to protect the traditional crops and products from the consequences of the introduction of new genetic technologies, by lobbying for a European legal framework for coexistence between traditional and transgenic crops, as well as the legal recognition of GMO-free zones and regions in Europe.
TRANSCRIPT: (slightly edited for clarity)
Michael O'Callaghan
The AER and FOE have called for a binding EU coexistence regulation, following the example of the law that was recently adopted by the German Parliament, with a clear definition of:
ï biosafety measures such as separation distances and a public register;
ï a liability scheme in the event that conventional and organic crops as well as their seeds are contaminated, on the basis of the precautionary and polluter-pays principles;
ï the right of Member States and regional authorities to prohibit or restrict the use or sale of GMOs within the Common market if there is an evidence for an advanced risk of extensive dissemination or a negative impact on the environment;
ï legal provisions enabling the regions to define all or a part of their territory as a GMO-free zone or region, without these decisions being seen as an infringement to the Community principle of free movement of goods.
The AER wants no new authorisation of GMOs within the EU until these binding rules come into force.
What is the AER and why is promoting GMO-free regions?
Agnes Ciccarone
The Assembly of European Regions (AER)is a pan-European organization with 250 members from 26 European countries. We have been aware of the risks of GMOs since the start of the GMO-free regions movement, which decided to launch a network in November 2003. We were then asked by other regions to provide them with more information about GMOs and what's at stake for their regions and their citizens. So we decided to launch our campaign, which is supported by Friends of the Earth because we are not experts in GMOs, but we want to inform our regions in the best way possible.
Our main concern is of course the problem of ensuring "co-existence" [of conventional and organic farming with GMO crops]. We all know at the moment that at EU level there are only guidelines and ensuring "co-existence" is up to the member states. But we know that so far hardly any EU member states have adopted any legislation, and we don't know how the others are going to deal with this problem. There are no legal guarantees for our regions to see their territories free of GMOs if that is what they want to ensure. There is a legal gap at the moment. So our main objective is to fill this gap by setting up a binding regulatory framework at EU level.
At first we wanted to propose a regulation, but we now think that a Directive would be more useful. With minimum standards for the whole of Europe, this could help member states which already have legislation to stay on that level, and help the other member states which have not yet taken legislative action to at least have minimum standards they would have to respect. This would help our regions.
In our position with Friends of the Earth, we also try to explain the key elements we hope to see in this EU regulatory framework. Of course the two main principles are the Precautionary Principle and the Polluter Pays principle.
How many GMO-free regions are part of your network?
At the start of the network in November 2003 we had 10 regions. We now have 14 regions. But we know that a lot of municipalities, local authorities or departments at sub-regional level have also declared themselves GMO-free. We try to monitor this development throughout Europe and have set up a list of GMO-free regional areas and zones. So there are many more than these 14 GMO-free regions. There are a lot of developments at the moment and not all of them are members of the Assembly of European Regions. This isn't a problem for us: we just want to inform them all of what is going on at the moment.
In Europe today some 14 regions and thousands of municipalities have declared themselves GMO-free in at least 22 European countries. We want to support this movement by ensuring the possibility of a true "co-existence." Now technically speaking, we know that "co-existence" would be really difficult because cross-contamination is almost unavoidable. But at least we would like to see a binding EU regulatory framework to provide conventional and organic farmers with legal guarantees in case of contamination of their seeds or crops.
What kind of progress are you making towards this goal?
We have made some concrete suggestions. For example on 3-4 February 2005 we are holding a conference in Florence with our network of GMO-free regions, and another conference on 17 May 2005 at the European Parliament in Brussels, with the support of certain MEPs in particular from the new EU member states, which is interesting. On this occasion we will present the key elements which the regions want to have included in this EU regulatory framework.
In this respect, we are really glad to see that the new Commissioner for Agriculture, Mariann Fischer Boel, is in favour of such a framework. So we want to influence the content of this document.
Ireland is geographically isolated, surrounded by water, and is upwind from most potential sources of GMO contamination because 80% of the time the wind blows in off the Atlantic. Is there any possibility that other EU member state governments would support a move to set aside the whole island of Ireland as a biosafety reserve for the long-term security of the rest of Europe, in case something goes wrong?
That could be an interesting idea! I wouldn't like Ireland to be the only GMO-free area, but it would be an interesting starting point. Yesterday we heard that Greece says it is completely GMO-free, but this morning there were some interesting remarks that they may be polluted from neighbouring countries like Macedonia and Albania. So having the island of Ireland as an isolated case would be an interesting starting point, but it shouldn't remain an isolated case.
Is there anything important that you would like people in Ireland to know about this issue ?
I would like most of all to get Irish Counties more involved in our campaign. It does not have to be seen as a campaign against GMOs, it's more of an information campaign. We need guarantees and we need the support of all regions to provide our input and ensure that our voices are heard at the European level. So I invite all Irish Counties to help us in this campaign.
Are some of our Counties already members of the AER?
Donegal. Unless I'm wrong this is the only one at the moment. Donegal was really active three years ago in the field of agriculture.
I would like to invite you to support this message: Please keep Ireland GMO-free!
