The Transformation of the Policy Conflict

Abstract

Following the extensive deliberation of its new biotechnology policy agenda, the Commission issued a ‘Report on the Review of Directive 90/220/EEC in the context of the Commission’s communication and the White Paper’ (European Commission 1996a), three years after the publication of the Delors White Paper itself. The scope and content of the directive was a major determinant of the Commission’s ability to create a more industry-supportive regulatory framework, especially as a result of the so-called ‘stop-gap’ clause. This article of the directive established that the risk assessment procedure of the directive had relevance for all GMO field releases and their marketing, including those covered under sectoral legislation, because all risk assessment procedures for GMOs in the EU needed to fulfil standards ‘similar’ to those included in the 1991 directive.⁴ For this reason, and more generally because of the directives massive regulatory scope, the reform of directive 90/220 was the linchpin of the Commission’s entire biotechnology policy agenda.