Mr. Ladislav Miko:

Good afternoon, I will be brief as I am aware of the time scale. It should be well understood that the use of GMOs is not a tool that would allow member states to decide on what they would like to plant in their fields that is the opposite from what is assessed as safe. At European level, countries can decide to opt out of using GMOs in their country or region.

It remains still be to be assessed and safety-confirmed at the European level. It is clearly specified in the proposed text that if something other than a safety consideration is relevant for a particular country or region - it may relate to a cultural issue, a public order matter or a certain system of agriculture - the country or region can opt out of using the particular variety to be planted. It is important to understand that we recognise that a member state may decide, for reasons unconnected to safety , that it does not want to cultivate the variety in question. That is the logic of the proposal. I do not foresee any increase in cultivation in Europe based on that. I would rather say the opposite - we will have clean information about the real reasons. If it is a question of safety, we will simply ban it at European level. We will not allow unsafe varieties to be produced or cultivated. If the safety issue is resolved, at least we will know it is not wanted for this reason or that reason. That is perfectly okay.