Kathy Sinnott  is European Parliament delegate to the World Trade Organisation
European Parliament Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

If the European Commission persists in its misguided policy to force GM seeds and crops on us, the people of Ireland will vote against adopting the European Constitution and against any further EU integration.

The EU still refuses to recognise the democratic legal right of Ireland and its other member states to remain free of GMO seeds and crops if they so choose.

Remaining GMO-free is vital for the health of the Irish people and all those who consume Irish farm and food produce around the world.

It is also essential for the future economic viability of the Irish farm and food sectors.

The EU's attempt to force GM seeds and crops into Ireland will make it impossible to convincingly market Irish food as safe and healthy under Bord Bia's brand of "Ireland - the food island."

Contact:

Kathy Sinnott MEP

tel + 353 (0)87 278 6552.
--- Irish Labour Party joins GM-free Ireland campaign GM-free Ireland press statement, 10 May 2006.

Speaking today at the European Day GM-free Ireland press conference at the European Commission Office in Dublin, the Labour Party spokesperson for Agriculture and Food, Mary Upton TD, announced that the Labour Party supports the campaign to conserve Ireland's GMO-free status.

Mary Upton said the Labour Party considers the European Commisson's refusal to recognise the right of its member states and regions to ban GMO seeds and crops if they want to do so as undemocratic and completely unacceptable.
--- Sargent challenges EU Agricultural Commissioner to tell biotech companies that GM seed and crops are unwanted and undemocratic

Green Party press release, 10 May 2006

Statement by Trevor Sargent Spokesperson on Taoiseach & Northern Ireland, Gaeltacht, Agriculture and
Food.

Today in the Dail Green Party Leader Trevor Sargent TD took the opportunity to question the European Union Agricultural Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel about key concerns for farmers and the public both in Deputy Sargent's own constituency as well as further afield.

"The people I represent are angry with the EU for colluding with the World Trade Organisation to indulge the commercial colonisation tactics of GM biotech companies. The fight to ensure the people can keep the country free of GMO seed and crops now takes on a renewed impetus following the recent decision by the Environmental Protection Agency to grant permission for GM trials in Co. Meath.

"An historic blow for democracy was struck last Monday by Meath County Council when a Green Party motion that the county should be made a GM free zone was unanimously endorsed. Meath now joins over 3400 local authorities and 172 regions, provinces and prefectures which are declared GMO free areas.

"Any assurance that GM labelling will be watertight is meaningless with the experience of mis-labelling to date. For example there is widespread evidence of false labeling that is already allowing imported potatoes and beef and other produce to be labelled as Irish.

"The people and farmers of Ireland are not asking, they are telling the European Commission that they will determine the future of our GM free status which up to now has been taken for granted. The words of Herr Rudi Anschober, Minister for the Environment in Austria are a call to action in Ireland too when he says that 'it is a basic principle that we can decide on our own what will grow in our fields! We demand the right of self-determination for the region'."