Sir, There was no “Franco-Austrian bluff” at the Environment Council (leading article, Mar 9). The current system of GM crop authorisation leads to regular deadlock among EU member states and results in significant legal uncertainty. Hence, a new proposal devised an opt-out system whereby each member state could decide the best solution for itself. The UK benefits from such opt-outs in many central EU policy areas: Schengen, the euro and the charter on fundamental rights. However, the big member states — France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, seconded by Belgium and Slovakia — blocked the proposal for a national opt-out on GM cultivation.
It is incorrect to say that the Danes proposed an opt-out scheme in 2010. This was a proposal from the European Commission, based on an Austrian-Dutch initiative, supported by Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland and Slovenia.
Austria and 20 other countries (out of 27) support the opt-out on GM cultivation. Some may call this “old-fashioned”, but it takes account of the precautionary principle and overwhelming public opinion in those countries which opposes GM crops in the same way that the majority of the British public opposes the euro or Schengen. An opt-out possibility would give meaning to the principle — much cherished also in Britain — of “unity in diversity”.
Emil Brix
Ambassador of Austria to the UK