Appeals and Comments on the Passed GMO Legislation

Kruno Jost

12 April 2005

The Croatian Bioethics Society, the Croatian Society of Agronomists, the Eko Kvarner association and the Action for EKO association, sent letters to the Croatian Sabor (the Parliament), the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister, in which they demand that a general referendum is called on the legislative regulation of application of genetically modified organisms in Croatia.

GMO Free Districts in Croatia are marked green.

The Zagreb branch of the Croatian Bioethics Society discussed the proposed Law on GMOs, currently in Parliamentary procedure, at the experts meeting held on April 5, in Zagreb. The meeting concluded that this Law is not in compliance with the principles of bioethics and that it should be revoked because it jeopardizes the long-term national interests.

The appeal issued by the Society emphasizes the need for full participation of the public and the academic community in a debate over the use of GMOs that should precede the preparation of the new Law. The Society is concerned over the fact that the Law on GMOs doesn�t apply the principle of caution warranted by the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and disregards the right of public participation.

The �Dubrovnik Declaration on Prohibition of Production of GMO-based Foods� was adopted at the Mediterranean Fair of Healthy Food and Pharmaceutical Herbs in Dubrovnik, held in the beginning of April 2005. The Declaration also demands for a plebiscite on the GMO use in Croatia and a national consensus. The Declaration was also submitted to the offices of the President of the Republic and the Croatian Government. The Croatian Society of Agronomists presented the highest offices in the country with their Comments on the purified text of the draft-Law on Genetically Modified Organisms.

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