Romanian Govt to restrict transgenic organisms

The Agriculture Ministry is working on a draft law that entails stricter control of soy crops in 2006, following criticism from Greenpeace and European Commission regarding Romania’s high volume of genetically modified organisms (GMO) or transgenic foods.

The measures will be set according to EU legislation and based on the Romanian Government’s decision of banning the transgenic soy crops issued in January 2006.

It will be mandatory that GMO crops be based on officially recognized genes authorized by the Agriculture Ministry’s local authorities, and all transgenic soy crops be thoroughly identified and registered, writes an Agriculture Ministry press release.

The international ecologist NGO Greenpeace drew attention on the transgenic soy planted in Romania, where 87,500 ha out of the total 130,000 were crops containing genetically modified soy.

For the moment, there is a legislative void in this sector that needs to be filled in by the Government before Romania’s accession to EU.