Spain: transposing EC biotechnology Directives through negotiation

Spain's 1994 law on GMOs does barely more than transpose the content of EC Directives 90/219 and 90/220 on biotechnology. Its enactment involved complex negotiations about how to share responsibility, at Ministerial and regional levels, more than about how to define the biosafety issues, which...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science & public policy 1996-06, Vol.23 (3), p.181-184
Main Authors: Luján, José L, Mirabal, Orlando, Borrillo, Daniel, Santesmases, Maria J, Munoz, Emilio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biotechnology
Community law
Europe
European Economic Community
European Union
Genetic Engineering
Law
Policy Implementation
Regulatory policy
Risk
Science Policy
Spain
Technology Policy
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Spain's 1994 law on GMOs does barely more than transpose the content of EC Directives 90/219 and 90/220 on biotechnology. Its enactment involved complex negotiations about how to share responsibility, at Ministerial and regional levels, more than about how to define the biosafety issues, which have hardly entered the environmental debate in Spain. Government administrators were influenced mainly by a small group of Spanish scientists familiar with the international biosafety discussions. Formal implementation of the 1994 law will depend on establishing an official National Biosafety Commission. Meanwhile a provisional Commission has effectively acted as both Competent Authority and advisor; it has assessed the GMO releases proposed in Spain, while seeking to avoid dissent. Numerous GMO releases have been conducted in Spain, but agricultural biotechnology is not widely perceived as offering a significant economic contribution, nor as posing a new risk problem.
ISSN:0302-3427
1471-5430
1471-5430
DOI:10.1093/spp/23.3.181