The European Community and the legislating of the application and products of genetic modification technology

Abstract

In recent years the European Community (EC) has been engaged in legislating to take account of the application and products of genetic modification technology (GMT), seeking to fulfil the need to supervise and adequately regulate this technology, whilst promoting and enabling the growth of the industrial sectors using it. A range of environmental and consumer interest, and more sectional interest, have variously sought firm regulatory guidelines and even prohibition in some applications of this technology, in order to ensure adequate protection of the environment and human safety. These conflicts have engaged the various institutions and levels of the EC's legislative process and are continuing (since 1993) in the contemporary phase since the Treaty of European Union, involving the treaty's new codecision process, in addition to the existing legislative procedures. -from Author