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EU – EC TO FINE FRANCE FOR GM NON-COMPLIANCE
Commission asks Court to impose fines on Italy and France over breaches of EU
environmental law
12 December 2006. Source: European Commission - Press Release
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/1756&type=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
The European Commission has decided to refer Italy and France to the European Court of Justice a second time for failure to comply with judgements by the European Court of Justice from 2004. The Commission also asks the Court to impose fines on Italy and France. Italy has infringed the EU’s Waste Framework Directive by failing to clean up illegal landfills in Manfredonia and Rodano…France has not fully transposed the EU Directive on the deliberate release of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into the environment. This Directive aims to safeguard human health and the environment against the potential risk of contamination by GMOs. The Commission proposes that France be fined a lump sum in excess of € 38 million and a daily penalty of €366,744 if the legislation is still not in place after a second Court ruling.
Stavros Dimas, European Commissioner for Environment, said…”European legislation on GMOs seeks to ensure the highest protection of health and the environment. It is therefore difficult to understand why France has not complied with the judgment of the court. The failure to transpose the EU directive on the deliberate release of GMOs may now result in fines.”
GMOs: France has not transposed the Directive on release into the environment in 2004, the EU Court of Justice ruled that France had not transposed an EU Directive on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms.[2] France has still not adopted the Directive, despite the fact that the Commission has sent it two written warnings to comply with the Court's judgment.
The Commission has therefore decided to ask the EU Court of Justice to impose a lump-sum penalty on France in excess of €38, 000,000.00, plus a daily penalty of €366,744.00 which will have to be paid until France has adopted the necessary legislation.
This Directive covers the cultivation of GMO seeds for crop or seed production. It also includes the importation of GMOs from other countries and/or their processing for industrial purposes. It governs key aspects of the application of GMOs, including the obligation to carry out an environmental risk assessment prior to authorisation, post-market monitoring, labelling, traceability, information to identify and detect GMOs, and consultation of the European Food Safety Authority. It should have been transposed by the Member States in 2003.
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