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Author: Laura Salvi

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The EU Regulatory Framework on GMOs and the Shift of Powers towards Member States: an Easy Way Out of the Regulatory Impasse? journal article

Laura Salvi

European Food and Feed Law Review, Volume 11 (2016), Issue 3, Page 201 - 210

The EU regulatory framework on GMOs has always been featured by a high degree of harmonisation and centralisation, resulting in a loss in its States’ regulatory power. However, the EU harmonisation process has gone through several controversies over the years; as a consequence, the EU institutions have increasingly striven to support the pressing requests of Member States with a view towards granting the latter greater room to manoeuvre and decide as regards GMOs cultivation, starting from coexistence concerns. This article briefly analyses the changes recently introduced by means of Directive 2015/412/EU as regards the cultivation of GMOs, from the point of view of the evolution of the EU regulatory framework and national attitudes towards the risks and benefits linked to biotechnology derived products and their production. According to the new Directive 2015/412, amending Directive 2001/18/EC on the deliberate release into the environment of GMOs, Member States are entitled to enact measures restricting or banning the cultivation of GM crops on their territory complying with several so called “compelling grounds”. In the light of the diverse nature of such reasons, and considering the hostility expressed by Member States towards GMOs over the years, some doubts arise as to whether the exercise of the new regulatory powers by Member States will comply with the ‘EU acquis’. What is certain is that today, after more than a decade since the big reform of 2001-2003, the EU GMO regime is still one of the much-contested policy sectors in the EU.

The EU's 'Soft Reaction' to Nanotechnology Regulation in the Food Sector journal article

Laura Salvi

European Food and Feed Law Review, Volume 10 (2015), Issue 3, Page 186 - 193

Over 10 years ago the European Commission started to approach the regulatory challenges posed by nanotechnologies. Nowadays, however, a certain and adequate regulatory framework seems still to be lacking. After a brief overview on the evolution of the EU's regulatory approach on nanotechnologies, with the aim to highlight the uncertainties which still persist as regards the definition of "nanomaterial", this article will illustrate the EU regulatory framework for nanotechnology-based products and applications in the food sector. The analysis, signally, will focus on the increasing reliance within the European Union on regulatory instruments such as soft law and secondary legislation enacted by the European Commission. The use of these forms of "soft" regulation seems to represent both one of the most relevant features and a weakness of the EU regulatory framework on nanotechnologies, resulting in wider concerns about the quest for legitimacy in the EU decision-making.

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