Introduction: The Need for a Systematic Analysis of Supranational Risk Regulation

Abstract

During the past ten years, health and safety regulation of products within the European Single Market¹ has developed from a technocratic issue far beyond public attention to a high-priority topic on the political agenda. This increasing importance is due, among other things, to the regulatory problems that shattered the European Union (EU)² during the 1990s. Firstly, the handling of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) by EU institutions damaged people’s trust in the regulatory capacities at the EU level (Ansell and Vogel 2006; Majone 2000; Vogel 2001a; Vos 2004). Until 1996, the EU regulatory bodies seriously underestimated the risk that BSE constituted for the health of consumers. Consequently, their regulatory measures were not strict enough to protect the health of European citizens or to prevent the spread of the disease all over Europe. Secondly, the increasing importation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and food (GM food) from the USA met with strong resistance from the already alienated European consumers (Vogel 2001b). In reaction to these concerns, the EU member states imposed a de facto moratorium on the authorisation of these products, and hazarded a trade war with the USA. At first view, the EU institutions had no answers to the BSE and GMO/GM food problems. The spread of BSE could not be prevented, nor could a sustainable policy on GMOs and GM food be adopted.