GMO-free europe

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National: GM crops are banned in areas in the National Ecological Network and in a 30-kilometers buffer zone around them.
Regional:
Municipalities: Five regions are declared as GMOfree by the local authorities by signing the European declaration: Banite, Ivaylovgrad, Kardzhali, Satovcha and Zlataritsa.

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Bulgaria (April 2007)

GMO law

In spring 2005 the Bulgarian parliament adopted a new law on genetically modified organisms which came into force on first of June 2005. The law concerns the use of GMOs under controlled conditions and the release into the environment. It was adopted by the parliament after long discussions among politicians, representatives of environmental NGOs and scientists in which the first, very liberal draft of the law was altered to a great extent.
Now, the adopted law is mainly in line with EU legislation and for some parts even sets stricter conditions - alterations which have been made possible by the pressure of environmental NGOs and civil society. The new law prohibits several important crops for Bulgaria to be released into the environment: tobacco, oil yielding rose, grapevines, all vegetables and fruits, cotton and wheat. However, the door for the most common GM-crops like maize, soybean and rapeseed is open. Furthermore, the law runs short of several important issues, for instance doesn't deal with conditions for labeling of processed GM-products for consumers' information.

The law safeguards protected areas in the National Ecological Network and in a 30-kilometer wide belt around them as well as organic farms and their neighboring fields against GM-crops.
In addition, the release of GMOs containing genes for antibiotic resistance is banned.

Contact

Agrolink
Svetla Nikolova
email: agrolink@bgnet.bg
website: www.agrolink.org

Za Zemiata - For the Earth
phone: 00359 - 2 851 86 20
email: zemiata@iterra.net
website: www.zazemiata.org/