Genetically modified organisms - European and Romanian legislation

• Author: Ovidiu Horia Maican
• Position: Law Department, Bucharest University of Economic Studies
• Pages: 60-69

Genetically modified organisms – European and Romanian legislation

Lecturer Ovidiu – Horia MAICAN

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Abstrac t

The paper outl ines the cu rrent Europe an Union legisl ation rega rding

biot echnolog y and specificall y the u se of genet ically mod ified micro -organisms. The first

regula tion wa s issued i n 1990 and was upda ted during the last 20 yea rs. The relevan ce of

the regulatio n for the industria l and environmenta l activi ties is d iscussed, lin king in the

conte xt of the other regu lations ap plicable to the biotech nolog y research and b usiness.

Keywords: Genetica lly modified organisms, regulatio n, hea lth, foo d, Europ ean

Union, Roman ia.

JEL Cla ssification: K32

1. Introduction

Genetic modification of micro-organisms, plants and animals existed since

the 1970s.

Genetically modified crops grow on a 25 % of the land under cultivation

worldwide and some genetically modified products re already on the market in the

European Union.

Genetic modification raises public concern in terms of health and

environmental protection.

United Nations conventions address these concerns. The World Trade

Organisation (WTO) deals with trade in genetically modified products. The

European Union (EU) is both party to the UN conventions (e.g. on biosafety) and a

key actor in the WTO.

2. European Union

European Union has the most severe regulations in the world for the

presence of GMOs in food

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That means the labeling of food and feed where the level of approved

GMO exceeds 0.9% of unintentional adventitious presence. In the situation of non-

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Ovidiu – H oria Maican - Law Department, Bucharest University of Economic Studies,

ovidiuszm@yahoo.com.

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John Davison, GM plants: Science, politics and EC regulations, Plant Science, Volume 178, Issue

2, 2010, p. 94.