The European Parliament adopted by 433 votes to 216 with 31 abstentions a resolution tabled by the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety on the draft Commission implementing decision authorising the placing on the market of products containing, consisting of, or produced from genetically modified soybean DAS-68416-4, pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 on genetically modified food and feed.

On 25 January 2011, Dow AgroSciences Europe submitted an application for the placing on the market of foods, food ingredients and feed containing genetically modified DAS-68416-4 soybean to the national competent authority of the Netherlands in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 . That application also covered the placing on the market of genetically modified soybean DAS-68416-4 in products consisting of it for uses other than food and feed as any other soybean, with the exception of cultivation.

Whilst the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) adopted a favourable opinion, Member States submitted numerous critical comments during the three-month consultation period, centring on the lack of sufficient information to exclude adverse effects on animal and human health unambiguously , and the inability to carry out a completed environmental risk assessment.

Parliament called on the Commission to withdraw its draft implementing decision . It cited several concerns, particularly the risks as regards embryo development, birth defects and endocrine disruption and increased tolerance to herbicides.

Parliament also noted that the vote of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health delivered no opinion, but 15 Member States voted against, while only 11 Member States – representing just 36.57 % of the Union population – voted in favour, with two Member States abstaining.

Under these circumstances, Parliament considered that the draft Commission implementing decision goes beyond the scope of the implementing powers provided for in Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003, and was also not consistent with Union law in that it did not provide the basis for ensuring a high level of protection of human life and health, animal health and welfare, the environment and consumer interests in relation to genetically modified food and feed.

It asked the Commission to suspend any implementing decision regarding applications for authorisation of genetically modified organisms until the authorisation procedure has been revised in such a way as to address the shortcomings of the current procedure, which has proven inadequate. In this respect, Members noted that the Commission has deplored the fact that since the entry into force of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 it has had to adopt authorisation decisions without the support of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health, and that the return of the dossier to the Commission for final decision, which is very much the exception for the procedure as a whole, has become the norm for decision-making on genetically modified food and feed authorisations. This practice has also been deplored by President Juncker as not being democratic.

Parliament called on the Commission to request much more detailed testing of health risks relating to stacked events such as DAS-68416-4, and not to authorise any herbicide-tolerant genetically modified plants (HT GMP) without full assessment of the residues from spraying with the complementary herbicides and their commercial formulations as applied in the countries of cultivation.