GMO news related to Bulgaria

16.02.2017 |

I voted against CETA because it does not protect Bulgaria’s national interests

Strasburg. “I voted against CETA, because I do not believe it is in the interest of Bulgaria,” stated MEP Momchil Nekov in plenary after the ratification of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), the press office of the MEP announced. For years, agriculture in the country has been shrinking. Removing import duties for Canada would most likely result in Bulgarian production having additional competition, for the local and European markets. A big part of products that have transitional quotas, such as beef and pork, are a threat to these sectors in Bulgaria.

“Last but not least, Canada is the fifth largest producer of GMO foods in the world. The European Commission claims that Canadian foods would have to comply with European law. But this means labelling the foods.

03.10.2015 |

Bulgaria remains a country against GM crops

Ministry of Agriculture and Food reaffirms its position: Bulgaria to be exempted from GM crops. This is stated in the 10 notification letters that the Ministry sent to the European Commission in order to be guaranteed that GM products would not be cultivated our country. Thus, it would be impossible corrections of the geographical coverage to be made, based on the submitted applications or authorizations of GMOs cultivation. Under Directive 2001/18 / EC by October 3, 2015, each Member State has the opportunity to indicate whether it wishes to ban the cultivation of GM products.

29.08.2011 |

US Embassy in Sofia (Bulgaria) backed pro-GMO lobby

According to the cables, GMO supporters in Bulgaria are actively backed and financed by the American Embassy, as Bivol writes. In a cable, sent in 2006, Charge d’Affaires, Alex Karagiannis, informs the US Department of State that the main obstacle for the passing of more liberal GMO legislation has been opposition coming from the President of the Bulgarian Academy of Science, Ivan Juchnovski. “According to Atanas Atanassov, Director of the Agro-Bio Institute, Juchnovski sent various “experts”, who knew little about the science of GMOs, to the Environmental and Agriculture Parliamentary Committees to critique the draft law.

19.03.2010 |

Bulgaria maintains ban on GM crop

With not a single vote in favour and 168 against, proposals to lift existing limitations on cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in Bulgaria were thrown out by Parliament on March 18 2010. The surprise decision came after ruling GERB party changed its position and dropped its support for the bill, Bulgarian-language daily Dnevnik said.

19.02.2010 |

Bulgaria MPs agree GMO amendments to protect organic farmland

The Bulgarian Parliamentary Committee on the Environment has agreed that GMOs will not be allowed within 7 kms of organic farmland, and 10 kms away from permanent, registered beehive clusters. They also adopted a five-year ban on the cultivation of GMOs for commercial and scientific research in the field. The document was voted before the new law on GMOs was adopted on second reading. The committee has accepted these changes to the Law on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) at the proposal of Evdokiya Maneva, Deputy Minister of Environment and Water.

23.03.2007 |

The Bulgarian GMO law remains restrictive

”There is no necessity of amendments in GMO Law at this point”. This was the conclusion reached on an informal meeting by representatives of the Parliamentarian Environmental Committee, the Minister of environment and his political cabinet. The Bulgarian law is not in conflict with the European legislation, it is even more restrictive. Only if the European Commission comes up with a explicit position about policy change we will consider this issue. Until now the regulations did not cause serious contradictions with the practice, said George Bozhinov, Chair of the standing committee on environment.

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