Political Discussion and Events

Upcoming events

Protect biodiversity from living modified organisms at MOP5 in Nagoya!
October 2010, Nagoya, Japan
Japan Citizens’ Network for Planet Diversity (JCNPD) is a nationwide network for citizens who are working on protecting our food crop diversity from living modified organisms.
We started this network in order to act on the United Nations’ major meeting to be held in Nagoya, October 2010, for the Protocol on Biosafety (also called Cartagena Protocol) which regulates the international trade of organisms modified by modern biotechnology (living modified organisms).
We want the meeting in Nagoya to define rules to protect consumers and the environment. The rules will be a crucial element of the global regulations regarding the integrity and continued sustainable use of living organisms under threat from certain risky applications of modern biotechnology.

10 th Anniversary of the Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside
November 19-22, Poland
Poland has a unique countryside - with very rich wild nature, beautiful landscapes, well-preserved cultural traditions and many good farmers who love their work. It is a national treasure. However decisions now being made may dramatically and seriously degrade the life and appearance of the Polish countryside over the next few years. The protection of the Polish countryside is not only a vital issue for Poland but for individuals and organizations in other countries as well. In order to help realize the goal of protecting our countryside, we created the International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside (ICPPC) ten years ago. This coalition was initiated by 41 organizations from 18 countries. Join us at our anniversary celebration!

 

 

Past Events

3rd European and Global Conference on non-GM Agriculture and Labels

3-4 February 2010, Brussels, hosted by the EU Committee of the Regions and organised by the GMO Free Regions Network
Participants:
- 28 members of the European Parliament as well as delegates from various DGs of the European Commission
- 98 businesses & farmers' organisations represented more than 690 000 european farmers...
- Besides the 51 regions of the GMO Free Regional government network, more than 20 other non-region members attended, coming from Spain, Germany, The Netherlands, Portugal, Poland...
- Permanent Delegations from  European Union Countries
- Official Delegates from neighbouring countries such as Norway, Croatia, Turquey...
- 12 NGO's (not counting Farmer's Unions)
- Attendants came from all the European Union, plus USA, Brazil, India, Croatia, Ukraine...

Conference website final declaration

 

Demonstration against GMO in Catalonia for Democracy, health and Good Food in support of the Catalan people's legislative initiative for GMO free Catalonia
28th June 2009
www.somloquesembrem.org

7th Conference of the Network of GMO-Free Regional Governments

17-19 June 2009 - Urbino, Italy

Co-Extra International Conference: GM and Non-GM Supply Chains

3-5 June 2009 - Paris, France

Som Lo Que Sembrem organitza unes Jornades Científiques internacionals sobre els OGM
el 6 i 7 de març, Barcelona, Spain
Les Jornades comptaràn amb ponencies de cièntifics de renom internacional, que aportaràn arguments cièntifics sobre els riscos que comporten els cultius de tràngenics per la salut i el medi àmbient.

Journée Luxembourg et Grande Région sans OGM
Dimanche, 22 mars 2009, Abbaye de Neumünster, Luxembourg-Ville
Stands d’information des organisations de l’Initiative, conférences et projections de films sur les OGM, exposition sur les risques des OGM pour la santé humaine, l’environnement et l’agriculture, Animations éducatives pour enfants

Terra Madre 2008
October 23 to 27 2008, Torino, Italy
the third edition of the biennial international meeting of the Terra Madre Network will bring together food communities, cooks, academics and youth delegates for four days to work towards increasing small-scale, traditional, and sustainable food production.

2nd International Non-GMO Soy Summit 2008
7-9 October 2008, Brussels, Belgium
The event will provide an interactive platform for industry members where they will work together to develop new strategies and alliances to meet the growing demand for non-GMO soy and derivatives

VIth Conference of the European GMO-free Network
Bilbao, 24-25th April 2008

Non gm feedstuff, quality productions and European regional agricultures’ strategy"
5-6 December 2007, Brussels, Committee of the Regions

GMCC III
3rd International Conference on Coexistence between genetically modified (GM) and non-GM based Agricultural Supply Chaines, Sevilla, 20-21 November 2007
Organised by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre 20th and 21st November 2007 in Seville (Spain)

"Freedom of Choice"-Conference, Vienna 4-6 April 2006
An EU sponsored event to discuss co-existence of GM- and GM free agriculture in Europe.

"GMO-free Balkan"
GMO-free Balkan - food safety, biodiversity, sustainable agriculture Balkan Conference, Thessaloniki 25. – 27.11.2005

Bologna Conference on 'Co-existence', contamination and GM-free zones: Jeopardising consumer choice?
organised by Consumers International and Regione Emilia-Romagna, Sep. 2005 
Conference documents on 'co-existence' and GMO contamination

 

 

Biotechnology For Europe Study, stakeholder presentation, Brussels, 20. April 2007
The European Commission has organised a Symposium on 20 April 2007 in Brussels to present main findings of the study and discuss them in the context of a revised EU Strategy on Life Sciences and Biotechnology.  Participation was by invitation only.
"Bio4EU" website
Drafts of Study

 

5th Conference of the GMO-Free Regional Governments of Europe, Torino 17-18 May 2007
The 40 GMO-Free Regional Governments of Europe will meet in Torino, Italy, to discuss their further strategy and sign a joint statement with the "Commission on the Future of Food".
GMO-Free-Regions-Network

 

3rd European Seed Seminar "Liberating diversity", Halle, Germany 19-20 May 2007
A European seminar particularly addressed to farmers, breeders, small scale seed companies, conservation associations and seed initiatives who are involved in saving GMO-free seed diversity, use and conservation of biodiversity and defending peasant rights of seeds. The preliminary programme is available in
English French German

 

EU Council of Ministers discuss EU Biotechnology Strategy May 21 / 22
The Council of EU Ministers on Competitiveness (Internal Market, Industry and Research) will discuss and eventually adopt an opinion on the Commissions mid term review of the EU biotech-strategy.

 

Living knowledge conference, Paris, 30. Aug - 1 Sept 2007 Communities building Knowledge - Innovation through citizens science and university engagement - deadline for proposals of presentations and workshops: 30. Aprilhomepage

 

Key Documents

The first European GMO-free regions conference in January 2005 adopted a Berlin Manifesto "Our Land, our Future, our Europe".

At their meeting in Florence in February 2005 the network of GMO-free regional governments signed a Charter of the regions and local authorities of on the subject of coexistence of genetically modified crops with traditional and organic farming.

The Declaration of Rennes was endorsed by the members of the GM-free Network expressing their ambitions and demands for the future. Nov. 2005. Rough translations available in Française and Deutsch

At a conference of Friends of the Earth and the Assembly of European Regions in Brussels in May 2006 10 principles were agreed called "Safeguarding sustainable European agriculture: Coexistence, GMO-free zones and the promotion of quality food produce in Europe"

 

Official positions and documents

Second report from the Commission on the experience of Member States with GMOs placed on the market under Directive 2001/18/EC on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms. {SEC(2007) 274} March 6 2007

Staff working document accompanying the report 

Opinion on the EU Commissions communication on the implementation of national measures on the coexistence of genetically modified crops with conventional and organic farming (Official Journal c 57, 2007/C 57/03, page 11 available in all languages)
adopted by the EU Committee of the Regions December 6th 2006 and prepared by Pietro Marrazzo, President of the Region of Lazio (Italy).

Communication of the Commission on the implementation of national measures on the coexistence of genetically modified crops with conventional and organic farming
Published by the European Commission 09/03/2006

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) - Resolution 1419
Adopted 24 Jan 2005 by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
in English or French