The European Commission has published in the Official Journal its Recommendation of 13 July 2010 on guidelines for the development of national co-existence measures to avoid the unintended presence of GMOs in conventional and organic crops. The objective of co-existence measures is to prevent the potential economic loss and impact of the admixture of GM and non-GM crops (including organic crops).

The guidelines for the development of national co-existence measures to avoid the unintended presence of GMOs in conventional and organic crops put forward by the Commission take the form of non-binding recommendations addressed to the Member States. They are intended to provide general principles for the development of national measures to avoid the unintended presence of GMOs in conventional and organic crops. It is recognised that many of the factors that are important in this context are specific to national, regional and local conditions.

Following this approach, the general principles for the development of national co-existence measures to avoid the unintended presence of GMOs in conventional and organic crops will be:

• Transparency, cross-border co-operation and stakeholder involvement
• Proportionality
• Levels of admixture to be attained through national co-existence measures to avoid the unintended presence of GMOs in conventional and organic crops
• Measures to exclude GMO cultivation from large areas (‘GM-free areas’)
• Liability rules

Commission points out the need to replace 2003 Recommendations to better reflect the possibility provided to establish measures to avoid the unintended presence of GMOs in conventional and organic crops. Accordingly, the current guidelines limit their content to the main general principles for the development of co-existence measures, recognising that Member States need sufficient flexibility to take into account their regional and national specificities and the particular local needs of conventional, organic and other types of crops and products.

The Recommendations also stablish that the European Coexistence Bureau (ECoB) will continue to develop together with Member States best practices for co-existence as well as technical guidelines on related issues. ECoB will keep up to date an indicative catalogue of measures as well as a list of agronomic, natural and crop-specific factors to be considered when developing national measures to avoid the unintended presence of GMOs in conventional and organic crops. Member States should continue to contribute to the technical work of ECoB.

Implications of the cultivation of GMOs in the EU for the organisation of agricultural production.

The Recommendations point out that, on the one hand, the possibility of the unintended presence of genetically modified (GM) crops in non-GM crops (conventional and organic), raises the question as to how producer choice for the different production types can be ensured. In principle, farmers should be able to cultivate the types of agricultural crops they choose — be it GM crops, conventional or organic crops. This possibility should be combined with the wish of some farmers and operators to ensure that their crops have the lowest possible presence of GMOs.

On the other hand, the issue is also linked to consumer choice. To provide European consumers with a choice between GM food and non-GM food , there should not only be a traceability and labelling system that functions properly, but also an agricultural sector that can provide the different types of products. The ability of the food industry to deliver a high degree of consumer choice goes hand in hand with the ability of the agricultural sector to maintain different production systems.