Common Position (EC) No 21/2003 of 17 March 2003 adopted by the Council, acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 251 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, with a view to adopting a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the traceability and labelling of genetically modified organisms and the traceability of food and feed products produced from genetically modified organisms and amending Directive 2001/18/EC
Date: 2003-03-17
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: animal nutrition, foodstuff, genetically modified organism, human nutrition, labelling, marketing, traceability

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COMMON POSITION (EC) No 21/2003

adopted by the Council on 17 March 2003

with a view to adopting Regulation (EC) No . . ./2003 of the European Parliament and of the
Council of . . . concerning the traceability and labelling of genetically modified organisms and
the traceability of food and feed products produced from genetically modified organisms and
amending Directive 2001/18/EC

(2003/C 113 E/02)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE
EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community, and in particular Article 95(1) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1),

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and
Social Committee (2),

Having regard to the opinion of
Regions (3),

the Committee of

the

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article
251 of the Treaty (4),

Whereas:

(1) Directive 2001/18/EC of the European Parliament and the
Council of 12 March 2001 on the deliberate release into
the environment of genetically modified organisms (5)
requires Member States to take measures to ensure tracea-
bility and labelling of authorised genetically modified
organisms (GMOs) at all stages of their placing on the
market.

(2) Differences between national laws, regulations and admin-
istrative provisions concerning traceability and labelling of
GMOs as products or in products as well as traceability of
food and feed produced from GMOs may hinder their free
movement, creating conditions of unequal and unfair
competition. A harmonised Community framework for
traceability and labelling of GMOs should contribute to
the effective functioning of the internal market. Directive
2001/18/EC should therefore be amended accordingly.

(1) OJ C 304 E, 30.10.2001, p. 327 and OJ C 331 E, 31.12.2002,

p. 308.

(2) OJ C 125, 27.5.2002, p. 69.
(3) OJ C 278, 14.11.2002, p. 31.
(4) Opinion of

the European Parliament of 3 July 2002 (not yet
published in the Official
Journal), Council Common Position of
17 March 2003 and Decision of the European Parliament of . . .
(not yet published in the Official Journal).

on

(3) Traceability requirements for GMOs should facilitate both
the withdrawal of products where unforeseen adverse
human
effects
the
animal
including ecosystems, are established, and
environment,
the targeting of monitoring to examine potential effects
on,
the environment. Traceability should
also facilitate the implementation of risk management
measures in accordance with the precautionary principle.

in particular,

health,

health

or

(4) Traceability requirements for food and feed produced from
GMOs should be established to facilitate accurate labelling
of such products, in accordance with the requirements of
Regulation (EC) No . . ./2003 of the European Parliament
and of the Council of . . . on genetically modified food and
feed (6), so as to ensure that accurate information is
available to operators and consumers to enable them to
exercise their freedom of choice in an effective manner as
well as to enable control and verification of
labelling
claims. Requirements for food and feed produced from
GMOs should be similar in order to avoid discontinuity
of information in cases of change in end use.

(5) The transmission and holding of information that products
contain or consist of GMOs, and the unique codes for
their placing on the
those GMOs, at each stage of
market provide the basis for appropriate traceability and
labelling for GMOs. The codes may be used to access
specific information on GMOs from a register, and to
facilitate their identification, detection and monitoring in
accordance with Directive 2001/18/EC.

(6) The transmission and holding of information that food
and feed have been produced from GMOs also provide
the appropriate traceability of products
the basis for
produced from GMOs.

(7) The Community legislation concerning GMOs as or in
feed should also apply to feed intended for animals
which are not destined for food production.

(8) Guidance on sampling and detection should be developed
in order to facilitate a coordinated approach for control
and inspection and provide legal certainty for operators.
Account
containing
taken of
information on genetic modifications in GMOs established
by the Commission in accordance with Article 31(2) of
Directive 2001/18/EC and Article 29 of Regulation (EC)
No . . ./2003.

registers

should

be

(5) OJ L 106, 17.4.2001, p. 1.

(6) OJ L . . .

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(9) Member States

should lay down rules on penalties
applicable to infringements of the provisions of this Regu-
lation.

Article 2

Scope

not

and

trigger

labelling

(10) Certain traces of GMOs in products may be adventitious
or technically unavoidable. Such presence of GMOs should
therefore
traceability
It is therefore necessary to fix thresholds
requirements.
for the adventitious or technically unavoidable presence
of material consisting, containing or produced from
GMOs both when the marketing of such GMOs is auth-
orised in the Community and when their adventitious or
technically unavoidable presence is tolerated by virtue of
Article 47 of Regulation (EC) No . . ./2003.
is also
appropriate to provide that, when the combined level of
adventitious or technically unavoidable presence of the
its
above material
in one of
aforesaid labelling
components
thresholds,
in
indicated
be
accordance with the provisions of
this Regulation and
detailed provisions to be adopted for its implementation.

than the
should

such presence

in a food or

is higher

feed or

It

(11) The measures necessary for the implementation of this
adopted in accordance with
Regulation should be
Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying
down the procedures for the exercise of implementing
powers conferred on the Commission (1).

(12) Systems for the development and assignment of unique
identifiers for GMOs should be established before the
measures relating to traceability and labelling can be
applied.

(13) This Regulation respects

rights and
observes the principles recognised in particular by the
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union,

the fundamental

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Objectives

This Regulation provides a framework for the traceability of
products consisting of or containing genetically modified
organisms (GMOs), and food and feed produced from GMOs,
with the objectives of facilitating accurate labelling, monitoring
the effects on the environment and, where appropriate, on
risk
the appropriate
health, and the
management measures including,
if necessary, withdrawal of
products.

implementation of

(1) OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23.

This Regulation shall apply, at all stages of the placing on

1.
the market, to:

(a) products consisting of, or containing, GMOs, placed on the

market in accordance with Community legislation;

(b) food produced from GMOs, placed on the market

in

accordance with Community legislation;

(c)

feed produced from GMOs, placed on the market
accordance with Community legislation.

in

This Regulation shall not apply to medicinal products for
2.
human and veterinary use authorised under Regulation (EEC)
No 2309/93 (2).

Article 3

Definitions

For the purpose of this Regulation:

1.

‘Genetically modified
‘GMO’ means
organism’
genetically modified organism as defined in Article 2(2)
of Directive 2001/18/EC, excluding organisms obtained
through the techniques of genetic modification listed in
Annex IB to Directive 2001/18/EC;

or

2.

‘Produced from GMOs’ means derived, in whole or in part,
from GMOs, but not containing or consisting of GMOs;

3.

4.

5.

‘Traceability’ means
products produced from GMOs at all stages of
placing on the market
distribution chains;

the ability to trace GMOs and
their
through the production and

‘Unique identifier’ means a simple numeric or alpha-
numeric code which serves to identify a GMO on the
basis of the authorised transformation event from which
it was developed and providing the means to retrieve
specific information pertinent to that GMO;

‘Operator’ means a natural or legal person who places a
product on the market or who receives a product that has
been placed on the market in the Community, either from
a Member State or from a third country, at any stage of
the production and distribution chain, but does not
include the final consumer;

(2) Council Regulation (EEC) No 2309/93 of 22 July 1993 laying down
Community procedures for the authorisation and supervision of
medicinal products for human and veterinary use and establishing
a European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal products (OJ L
214, 24.8.1993, p. 1). Regulation as amended by Commission
Regulation (EC) No 649/98 (OJ L 88, 24.3.1998, p. 7).

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6.

‘Final consumer’ means the ultimate consumer who will
not use the product as part of any business operation or
activity;

(b) the unique

identifier(s)

assigned to those GMOs

in

accordance with Article 8.

7.

‘Food’ means food as defined in Article 2 of Regulation
(EC) No 178/2002 (1);

At all subsequent stages of the placing on the market of
2.
products referred to in paragraph 1, operators shall ensure that
the information received in accordance with paragraph 1 is
transmitted in writing to the operators receiving the products.

8.

‘Ingredient’ means ingredient as referred to in Article 6(4)
of Directive 2000/13/EC (2);

9.

‘Feed’ means feed as defined in Article 3(4) of Regulation
(EC) No 178/2002;

10.

‘Placing on the market’ means placing on the market as
defined in the specific Community legislation under which
the relevant product has been authorised; in other cases, it
is defined as in Article 2(4) of Directive 2001/18/EC;

11.

the initial

‘The first stage of the placing on the market of a product’
means
transaction in the production and
distribution chains, where a product is made available to
a third party;

12.

‘Pre-packaged product’ means any single item offered for
sale consisting of a product and the packaging into which
it was put before being offered for sale, whether such
packaging encloses
completely or only
the product
partially, provided that
the contents cannot be altered
without opening or changing the packaging.

Article 4

Traceability and labelling requirements

for products

consisting of or containing GMOs

A. Traceability

At the first stage of the placing on the market of a
including bulk
following
the
to the operator

1.
product consisting of or containing GMOs,
quantities,
information is
receiving the product:

transmitted in writing

operators

ensure

shall

that

for processing,

3.
In the case of products consisting of or containing
mixtures of GMOs to be used only and directly as food or
feed or
information referred to in
paragraph 1(b) may be replaced by a declaration of use by
the operator, accompanied by a list of the unique identifiers
for all those GMOs that have been used to constitute the
mixture.

the

systems and procedures

4. Without prejudice to Article 6, operators shall have in
place
to allow the holding of
information specified in paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 and the identi-
fication, for a period of five years from each transaction, of the
operator by whom and the operator to whom the products
referred to in paragraph 1 have been made available.

Paragraphs 1 to 4 shall be without prejudice to other

5.
specific requirements in Community legislation.

B. Labelling

For products consisting of or containing GMOs, operators

6.
shall ensure that:

(a)

for pre-packaged products consisting of, or containing
GMOs,
contains genetically
‘This product
modified organisms’ or ‘This product contains genetically
modified (name of organism(s))’ appear on a label;

the words

(b) for non-pre-packaged products offered to the

final
consumer the words ‘This product contains genetically
modified organisms’ or ‘This product contains genetically
modified (name of organism(s))’ shall appear on, or in
connection with, the display of the product.

(a) that it contains or consists of GMOs;

This paragraph shall be without prejudice to other specific
requirements in Community legislation.

(1) Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of
the Council of 28 January 2002 laying down the general principles
and requirements of
food law, establishing the European Food
Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food
safety (OJ L 31, 1.2.2002, p. 1).

(2) Directive 2000/13/EC of

the European Parliament and of

the
Council of 20 March 2000 on the approximation of the laws of
the Member States relating to the labelling, presentation and adver-
tising of
foodstuffs (OJ L 109, 6.5.2000, p. 29). Directive as
amended by Commission Directive 2001/101/EC (OJ L 310,
28.11.2001, p. 19).

C. Exemptions

Paragraphs 1 to 6 shall not apply to traces of GMOs in
7.
products in a proportion no higher than the thresholds estab-
lished in accordance with Article 21(2) or (3) of Directive
2001/18/EC and in other
specific Community legislation,
provided that
these traces of GMOs are adventitious or
technically unavoidable.

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Paragraphs 1 to 6 shall not apply to traces of GMOs in
8.
products intended for direct use as food, feed or for processing
in a proportion no higher than the thresholds established for
those GMOs in accordance with Articles 12, 24 or 47 of
Regulation (EC) No . . ./2003, provided that these traces of
GMOs are adventitious or technically unavoidable.

Paragraph 1 shall not apply to the first stage of placing
2.
on the market of a product or to primary manufacture or
re-packaging of a product.

Article 7

Amendment of Directive 2001/18/EC

Article 5

Directive 2001/18/EC is hereby amended as follows:

Traceability requirements for products for food and feed
produced from GMOs

1) Article 4(6) shall be deleted.

1. When placing products produced from GMOs on the
market, operators shall ensure that the following information
is transmitted in writing to the operator receiving the product:

2) The following paragraph shall be added to Article 21:

(a) an indication of each of the food ingredients which is

produced from GMOs;

(b) an indication of each of the feed materials or additives

which is produced from GMOs;

(c)

in the case of products for which no list of ingredients
exists, an indication that the product is produced from
GMOs.

2. Without prejudice to Article 6, operators shall have in
place systems and procedures to allow the holding of
the
information specified in paragraph 1 and the identification,
for a period of
the
operator by whom and to whom the products referred to in
paragraph 1 have been made available.

five years from each transaction, of

Paragraphs 1 and 2 shall be without prejudice to other

3.
specific requirements in Community legislation.

4.
Paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 shall not apply to traces of GMOs
in products for food and feed produced from GMOs in a
proportion no higher
than the thresholds established for
those GMOs in accordance with Articles 12, 24 or 47 of
Regulation (EC) No . . ./2003, provided that these traces of
GMOs are adventitious or technically unavoidable.

Article 6

Exemptions

1.
for
In cases where Community legislation provides
specific identification systems, such as lot numbering for
pre-packaged products, operators shall not be obliged to hold
the information specified in Articles 4(1), 4(2), 4(3) and 5(1),
provided that this information and the lot number is clearly
marked on the package and that
lot
numbers
time referred to in
is held for
Articles 4(4) and 5(2).

information about

the periods of

For

intended

products

‘3.
processing,
paragraph 1 shall not apply to traces of authorised GMOs
in a proportion no higher than 0,9 % or lower thresholds
established under the provisions of Article 30(2), provided
that these traces are adventitious or technically unavoidable.’

direct

for

Article 8

Unique identifiers

In accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 10(2),
the Commission shall:

(a) prior to the application of Articles 1 to 7 establish a system
for development and assignment of unique identifiers to
GMOs;

(b) adapt the system provided for in point (a), as appropriate.

In so doing, account shall be taken of developments in inter-
national fora.

Article 9

Inspection and control measures

1. Member States shall ensure that inspections and other
control measures including sample checks and testing (quali-
tative and quantitative), as appropriate, are carried out
to
Inspection and
ensure
control measures may also include inspection and control
regarding the holding of a product.

compliance with this Regulation.

Prior

to the

application of Articles 1 to 7,

the
2.
Commission, in accordance with the procedure referred to in
Article 10(3), shall develop technical guidance on sampling and
testing to facilitate a coordinated approach for the implemen-
tation of paragraph 1 of this Article. In developing the above
technical guidance, the Commission shall take account of the
work of national competent authorities, the committee referred
to in Article 58(1) of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 and the
Community Reference Laboratory established under Regulation
(EC) No . . ./2003.

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Article 10

Committee

The Commission shall be assisted by the committee set

1.
up by Article 30 of Directive 2001/18/EC.

2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Articles 5 and
7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the
provisions of Article 8 thereof.

The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC
shall be set at three months.

3. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Articles 3 and
7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the
provisions of Article 8 thereof.

4.

The Committee shall adopt its rules of procedure.

Article 11

Penalties

Member States shall lay down the rules on penalties applicable
to infringements of this Regulation and shall take all measures

necessary to ensure that they are implemented. The penalties
provided for must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.
Member States shall notify those provisions to the Commission,
not later than . . . (*) and shall notify it without delay of any
subsequent amendment affecting them.

Article 12

Review clause

No later than . . . (**), the Commission shall forward to the
European Parliament and to the Council a report on the
implementation of this Regulation,
in particular with regard
to Article 4(3) and, where appropriate, bring forward a
proposal.

Article 13

Entry into force

1.
This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth
day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the
European Union.

2.
Articles 1 to 7 and Article 9(1) shall apply with effect
from the ninetieth day following the date of publication in the
Official Journal of the European Union of the measure referred to
in Article 8(a).

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels, . . .

For the European Parliament

The President

For the Council

The President

(*) 180 days following the date of publication of this Regulation.
(**) Two years from the date of publication of this Regulation.

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STATEMENT OF THE COUNCIL'S REASONS

I. INTRODUCTION

1. The Commission submitted to the Council on 21 August 2001 a proposal for a Regulation of the
European Parliament and of the Council concerning traceability and labelling of genetically modified
organisms and traceability of food and feed products produced from genetically modified organisms
and amending Directive 2001/18/EC.

2. The Economic and Social Committee adopted its opinion on 21 March 2002.

3. The Committee of the Regions adopted its opinion on 16 May 2002.

4. The European Parliament adopted its opinion on 3 July 2002.

5. The Commission submitted to the Council on 16 September 2002 an amended proposal on the

above subject.

6. On 17 March 2003, the Council adopted its common position in accordance with Article 251(2) of

the Treaty.

II. OBJECTIVE

The Regulation aims at the establishment of a traceability and labelling system for genetically modified
organisms (GMOs) as or in products and of a traceability system for food and feed derived from GMOs.
Such a system shall apply at all stages of the placing on the market, and it will facilitate:

— targeted monitoring of potential effects,

— control and verification of labelling claims,

— withdrawal of products, should an unforeseen risk to human health or the environment be estab-

lished.

The traceability system involves the following elements:

— the establishment by the Commission (through a comitology procedure) of a system to specify the
identity of GMOs by the assignment of a ‘unique identifier’, allowing the retrieval of information
concerning its traits, characteristics and authorised transformation events,

— systems and procedures to identify the operators to whom and from whom products are made

available,

— the transmission by operators of information concerning the identity of a product, i.e.

(i) whether it contains GMOs as well as the ‘unique identifiers’ for the individual GMOs that the

product contains, or

(ii) that the product is ‘produced from GMOs’ in case of GMO-derived food and feed products,

— retention by operators of specified information for a period of five years, to be made available to

competent authorities upon request,

— Commission guidance on sampling and testing methodology to facilitate a coordinated approach to

inspections and controls.

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Labelling requirements are foreseen for products consisting of or containing GMOs, complementary to
the existing ones in Directive 2001/18/EC (on the deliberate release of GMOs) and to those foreseen by
the Commission in its proposed Regulation on genetically modified food and feed.

III. ANALYSIS OF THE COMMON POSITION

1. General

The main issues of the Regulation are requirements for traceability and labelling of products that
consist of or contain GMOs (Article 4), and provisions for traceability of products that are produced
from GMOs but do not contain GMOs themselves (Article 5). In this respect, as well as with regard
to the scope of the Regulation, the Council fully accepts the Commission proposal.

Exemptions from the traceability and labelling scheme shall be allowed for the adventitious or
technically unavoidable presence of traces of GMOs (Articles 4(7), 4(8) and 5(4)). The thresholds
for these exemptions are introduced in this Regulation by way of reference to the respective Articles
of the Regulation on genetically modified food and feed (as discussed in parallel with this Regu-
lation), where the threshold level has been set at 0,9 % and can be lowered via a regulatory
committee procedure, as well as by way of reference to Directive 2001/18/EC. While the
exemptions generally cover only GMOs that have been authorised in the EU, the adventitious or
technically unavoidable presence of such GMOs that have not been authorised but have benefited
from a favourable risk evaluation will be permitted below a threshold level of 0,5 %, or lower as set
by a regulatory committee procedure, for a transitional period of three years.

The Council has tightened the Commission proposal with regard to the information that has to
accompany bulk shipments of products containing mixtures of GMOs (Article 4(3)) by allowing only
for ‘. . . a list of the unique identifiers for all those GMOs that have been used to constitute the
mixture’, instead of ‘. . . unique codes for the GMOs that the product may contain’ as originally
proposed by the Commission.

Complementary to this provision, the Council has introduced a review clause (Article 12) in order to
call on the Commission

— to present a report after the first experiences with the provision of Article 4(3) have been gained

in practice, and

— where appropriate, to make proposals for changes to the Regulation.

While the Regulation generally covers all stages of placing on the market of the products, the
Council has filled a gap by introducing that inspection and control measures can also target the
holding of a product.

The Commission has accepted the common position agreed by the Council.

2. European Parliament amendments

In its plenary vote on 3 July 2002, the EP adopted 30 amendments to the proposal. While 15 of
these amendments could not be accepted by the Council, another 15 have been incorporated either
verbatim, in part or in spirit into the common position.

(a) The 15 amendments that have been incorporated can be grouped as follows:

Five amendments accepted verbatim:

Amendment 9 has been incorporated in the definition of ‘Genetically modified organism’ in
Article 3.

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Amendment 10 has been incorporated in the definition of ‘Operator’ in Article 3.

Amendment 11 has been taken on board in the definition of ‘Food’ in Article 3.

Amendment 13: ‘to the ultimate user’ has been deleted from the definition of ‘Pre-packaged’ in
Article 3.

Amendment 14: an improved provision for labelling as proposed in this amendment has been
incorporated in Article 4(6).

10 amendments accepted in part or in spirit:

Amendment 2: the reference to the precautionary principle has been incorporated in Recital 3,
and Article 1 now refers to appropriate risk management measures.

Amendment 6: several aspects of this long amendment have been taken up in Article 1
(reference to health) and Recital 3 (references to the precautionary principle, to the protection
of human and animal health, and to the protection of ecosystems).

Other issues mentioned in the amendment are not regarded as appropriate for consideration in
the Regulation.

Amendment 12 has been, in principle, incorporated in the definition of ‘Placing on the market’
in Article 3 by way of referring to Article 2(4) of Directive 2001/18/EC. However, for reasons of
consistency, the Council gives priority to definitions, in the event that they exist, in the specific
Community legislation under which the relevant product has been authorised.

Amendment 24: the spirit of this amendment has been taken on board by clarifying the
exemption in Article 6 through the addition of the sentence ‘This Article does not apply to the
first stage of placing on the market of a product or to primary manufacture or re-packing of a product.’, as
contained in the amended Commission proposal.

Amendment 27: with regard to ‘good segregation practice’, the Council has agreed upon a
declaration in connection with the Regulation on genetically modified food and feed. The
declaration was added to the minutes of the Agriculture/Fisheries Council of 28/29 November
2002 and reads as follows:

‘The Council invites the Member States to encourage and contribute to the drawing up of guides in
particular on good segregation practice to be applied by food and feed operators in order to minimise
the adventitious or technically unavoidable presence of genetically modified material in food and feed.’

Amendment 29: the reference to ‘sample checks and testing (quantitative and qualitative)’ has
been incorporated in Article 9(1). Mentioning ‘risk assessment’ is not deemed appropriate in this
respect, as inspection and control rather constitute risk management measures.

Amendment 30 has been taken into account in part in Article 9(2). The regulatory committee
procedure, however, has been replaced by an advisory committee procedure and the Council
prefers not to include an explicit provision for publishing the technical guidance to be developed
by the Commission.

Amendment 31: a reference to existing and future registers containing information on GMOs
has been included in Recital 8.

Amendment 35: the spirit of this amendment has been integrated into Recital 4: ‘. . . so as to
ensure that accurate information is available to operators and consumers . . .’.

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Amendment 47 has been completely incorporated in Article 9(2) with the only exception that
reference is made to the work rather than to the rules of the Community Reference Laboratory.

(b) The 15 amendments that have not been incorporated can be grouped as follows:

instead of
Information accompanying mixtures of GMOs (‘may contain’, Amendment 16):
deleting this provision, which would have costly and non-practicable consequences,
the
Council has considerably tightened the conditions by allowing a list of identifiers only for
those GMOs that have been used to constitute the mixture (Article 4(3)).

Holding of all information relevant for traceability of GMOs and derived products for a period of
ten years instead of five (Amendments 17 and 22): the Council is of the opinion that the
proposed doubling of the time period is of no added practical value, but also puts additional
burden on operators and inspection authorities.

Amendment 20 has not been taken on board because additional labelling of products produced
from GMOs (derived products) is not necessary to meet the objectives of the proposal.

Amendment 21: the transmission of information on the unique code of GMOs from which a
product is made is not deemed necessary by the Council, as the products in question do not
contain any GMOs. For the purpose of labelling products produced from GMOs (under the
Regulation on genetically modified food and feed), it is sufficient to transmit the information
that they are produced from GMOs, but it is not necessary to establish a detailed history and
documentation of the origin of each product.

Thresholds for the adventitious or technically unavoidable presence of GMOs or of traces of
materials produced from GMOs (Amendments 26, 52 and 55):
these
amendments are not appropriate in the framework of the traceability and labelling scheme
that was proposed by the Commission and that has been in general accepted by the Council.
Also, they cannot be accepted in order to keep consistency with Directive 2001/18/EC and the
Regulation on genetically modified food and feed. Furthermore, the Council agrees with the
arguments as outlined by the Commission in its amended proposal of 13 September 2002.

the provisions of

Deletion of Article 4(6) of Directive 2001/18/EC (Amendments 28 and 51): Article 4(6) of
Directive 2001/18/EC has to be deleted in order to avoid a dual system of national and
Community systems for traceability. It is the firm intention of the Council to provide for a
harmonised framework for all measures related to traceability of GMOs, as expressed also in
Recital 2.

Entry into force (Amendments 32 and 33): as the Council does not intend to delete Article 7,
this Article may not be excluded from the provisions for entry into force.

Furthermore, the Council does not agree to link the authorisation procedure for GMOs with the
establishment of the system of unique identifiers by the Commission, as contained in Article 8 of
the Regulation.

‘Produced from GMOs’

Definition of
this
amendment for reasons of consistency with other legislation (Novel Foods Regulation (EC)
No 258/97 and the proposed Regulation on genetically modified food and feed).

the Council cannot accept

(Amendment 39):

Reference to comitology (Amendment 48): with regard to the scope of this Regulation, the
Council deems most appropriate the committee established under horizontal Directive
2001/18/EC.

Standardisation of the procedures for the identification of transactions (Amendment 50): the
Council does not share the opinion of the EP that the procedures referred to in Article 4(4) need
to be standardised at Community level. The choice of the procedure should be left to the
Member States in order to allow them to apply existing systems.

C 113 E/30

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

13.5.2003

3. Important innovations introduced by the Council

Apart from the innovations already described under III.1:

— thresholds for exemptions from traceability and labelling,

— information accompanying mixtures of GMOs,

— review clause,

— control and inspection also for the holding of products

and described under III.2 (EP amendments), the Council has introduced the following main inno-
vations in the text of the Regulation:

— new recital 7, addressing feed for animals not destined for food production (pets),

— further detailing of recital 10, addressing the need for thresholds for the exemption of the
adventitious or technically unavoidable presence of GMOs from the traceability and labelling
rules,

— revision of the definitions (Article 3): elimination of the definitions of food/feed additives,
(compound) feedingstuff, flavourings and feed materials and the inclusion of the definitions of
‘Final consumer’ and ‘Ingredient’,

— re-structuring of the Articles 4 to 6 that describe the traceability and labelling rules and the

exemptions thereof,

— amendment of Directive 2001/18/EC by way of inclusion of a new Article 21(3), which provides

for an exemption from labelling for GMOs intended for direct processing.

IV. CONCLUSION

Despite the fact that the Council
is not able to accept all amendments adopted by the European
Parliament, it considers that the common position coincides to a large extent with the concerns of
the Parliament and it is in almost complete agreement with the Commission's amended proposal.

The common position represents a balanced approach between practicability and the concerns for the
protection of health and environment, without compromising biosafety.

After the entry into force of Directive 2001/18/EC, this Regulation is another milestone in the legis-
lation for the safe management of products originating from modern biotechnology.

With regard to the political relevance of this Regulation and also in the light of the de-facto mora-
torium on the authorisation of new GMOs being linked to its entry into force, the Council expresses its
firm hopes that it will be possible to achieve an agreement soon.