The European Parliament’s Environment Committee (ENVI) has adopted a resolution urging the EU Commission not to approve the use of glyphosate-tolerant GM maize NK603 x T25 in food and feed and also suspend any authorizations for GM food and feed as long as the approval procedure has not been improved.

Since the GMO authorization process came into force, each decision to approve a new crop has been adopted by the Commission without the support of a qualified majority of member states, the MEPS point out.

The GM authorization process is currently under review, but decision-making power was bounced back into the Commission’s court after the Parliament in October rejected the EU executive’s proposed law enabling any member state to restrict or prohibit the sale and use of already approved GMO food or feed on its territory.

At the time, the MEPs said they believed the law might prove unworkable or that it could lead to the reintroduction of border checks between pro- and anti-GMO countries. They have called on the Commission to table a new proposal.

As regards glyphosate itself, to which NK603 x T25 maize in part confers tolerance, the committee noted that it was classified as “probably carcinogenic to humans” by the World Health Organization IARC sub-group on in March of this year’s.

By contrast, the European Food Safety Authority said in November that the herbicide ingredient was unlikely to pose a carcinogenic hazard to humans.

The EP’s motion for a resolution, adopted by 40 votes to 26, with 3 abstentions, will be put to a vote at the Parliament’s 18-21 January 2016 plenary session in Strasbourg.