Romanian Court decides that seeds for cultivation may not be contaminated with genetically modified organisms

24th of February, 2010
The Romanian Minister of Agriculture's Decree no. 185/23.03.2009 [1] and 186/23.03.2009 [2], illegally regulated the safety for all seeds for cultivation and seeding material, by allowing their contamination with genetically modified organisms (GMO). These new Decrees are modifying two older Decrees of the Minister for Agriculture no. 1262 and 1264/2005 [3].

This is the conclusion of Appeals Court Cluj, which announced yesterday, 23rd of February 2010, the decision [4] to annul the paragraph 9, letter G (Chapter II, Annex 7) which makes the subject of these new Decrees: „Following laboratory tests, the genetically modified seeds is allowed in deposits/lots of non-GMO seeds, up to a maximum of 0.3% for non-GMO varieties belonging to open polination species and hybrids and respectively 0.5% in case of non-GMO varieties of the auto-pollinated; seeds which present a percentage of contamination with GMO seeds exceeding 0.3% and 0.5% will not be certified as non-GMO."

The Decree no. 185 authorizes the GMO contamination for all seeds for cultivation and seeding material whilst the Decree no. 186 is regulating the same aspect for oilseeds and textiles. The regulation of any contamination level (that exceeds 0% detection level) of cultivation seeds with GMOs is illegal at the European level [5]. The pollination is a phenomen which cannot be controlled throgh any safety measure. Once cultivated, the seeds contaminated with GMOs up to 0,3-0,5% could produce a further contamination which will conduct to a generalized contamination of crops with GMOs.

For these reasons, the association The Ecological Club Transylvania, innitiated a court case against the Ministry for Agriculture, in order to correct the abusive contamination regulation. The Ecological Club Transylvania was represented in court pro bono, by the lawyer Dana Revnic, from „Revnic & Co.".

„Practically, these Decrees were opening the gates for GMO contamination in the fields and in the food chain, by the certification of contaminates seeds as non-GMOs. The farmers wouldn't have had the possibility to decide weather to cultivate GMOs or not. The decision of the Appeals Court Cluj is correct and we are happy to have interveened before too late. Following this decision we can say that we are a step closer to to respecting the right to health care and a healthy environment." declares, Dan Craioveanu, vice-president of the Ecological Club Transylvania.