The European Parliament adopted by 433 votes to 201, with 33 abstentions, a resolution objecting to the Commission's draft implementing decision renewing the authorisation for the placing on the market of products containing, consisting of, or produced from genetically modified maize 1507 (DAS-Ø15Ø7-1) pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council on genetically modified food and feed.

The resolution was tabled by the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety.

On 27 February 2015, Pioneer Overseas Corporation and Dow AgroSciences Ltd. jointly submitted to the Commission an application for the renewal of the authorisation for the placing on the market of foods and feed containing, consisting of, or produced from genetically modified maize 1507 .

While the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) expressed a favourable opinion, Member States submitted many critical comments during the three-month consultation period stressing that:

the proposed monitoring plan is not considered appropriate to address relevant issues of post-market environmental monitoring of GM maize 1057; the monitoring as conducted by the notifier did not generate reliable data to confirm the risk assessment conclusion that effects on human and animal health would be negligible; the applicant did not provide the necessary evidence to demonstrate a history of safe use of PAT protein, which confers tolerance to the herbicide glufosinate ammonium.

The residues from spraying with glufosinate (which is classified as toxic to reproduction) were not assessed. It cannot therefore be concluded that genetically engineered maize 1507 is safe for use in food and feed.

The authorisation for the cultivation of maize 1507 in the Union is pending. Parliament objected to such an authorisation due to concerns as to, inter alia, a possible evolution of resistance to the Cry1F protein in lepidopteran target pests which may lead to altered pest control practices.

In light of the above, Parliament considered that the Commission implementing decision is not consistent with Union law in that it is not compatible with the aim of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 which is to 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, while ensuring the effective functioning of the internal market.

Therefore, Parliament called on the Commission to withdraw its draft implementing decision .

On a procedural note , Members recalled that since the entry into force of the current authorisation procedure for GMOs, authorisation decisions have been adopted by the Commission without the support of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health.

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.

That practice has also been deplored by Commission President Juncker as not being democratic .

Parliament 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 so as to address the shortcomings of the current procedure.

It also called on the legislators responsible to advance work on the Commission proposal amending Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 to ensure that if no opinion is delivered by the Food Chain and Animal Health Standing Committee with respect to GMOs approvals, either for cultivation or for food and feed, the Commission will withdraw the proposal.

Parliament called on the Commission:

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; to develop strategies for health risk assessment and toxicology, as well as post-market monitoring, that target the whole food and feed chain; to fully integrate the risk assessment of the application of the complementary herbicides and their residues into the risk assessment of HT GMP, regardless of whether the genetically modified plant is for cultivation in the Union or for import for food and feed.