THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION hopes to introduce two new directives that will ban the use of the cloning in the EU for farmed animals as well as ban the marketing of food, such as meat or milk from cloned animals being placed on the EU market.

The European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, Toni Borg also proposed a ban on all imports into the EU of cloned animals.

Cloning

The policy proposals seek to ensure that no cloning for farming purposes will be carried out in the EU and no such clone will be imported as long as animal welfare concerns persist. This also implies a suspension of the food from the clone.

Borg said this is a “sensitive issue” relating to animal welfare and ethical concerns related to the use of the cloning technique.

He added:

The measures on animal cloning provide a clear EU policy that respond to animal welfare concerns as well as consumer perceptions on food from animal clones in a realistic and workable way.

Now it is for the co-legislators, the European Parliament and the Council, to start their considerations as soon as possible to get the legislations adopted in due course.

Offspring

In March 2011, governments rejected parliament’s demand to ban food produced from the offspring of cloned animals.

Currently, the“novel food” regulation leaves the EU with its 1997 law that requires special authorisation for food from cloned animals, but does not ban it.

Borg proposed to create a centralised authorisation system, which will allow “greater certainty for applicants seeking an authorisation for a novel food and will simplify and speed up the process to enable safe and innovative food to reach the EU market faster”.

The new proposals would revises the current regulation with a view to improving access of new and innovative food to the EU market, said Borg, while “still maintaining a high level of consumer protection”.

More than 60 per cent of EU citizens think animal cloning is “morally wrong,” while 84 per cent are concerned that the long-term effects of animal cloning on nature are unknown, according to an EU survey from 2008.

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