VZCZCXRO1693
RR RUEHAG RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLZ RUEHROV
DE RUEHFR #0078/01 0141728
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 141728Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY PARIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1700
RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 2810
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC
RUEHMRE/AMCONSUL MARSEILLE 1942
RUEHSR/AMCONSUL STRASBOURG 0523

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 000078 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
BRUSSELS PASS USEU FOR AGMINCOUNSELOR 
STATE FOR OES; EUR/ERA; EEB/TPP/ABT/BTT (BOBO) 
STATE PASS USTR FOR MURPHY/CLARKSON OCRA/CURTIS 
STA/SIMMONS/JONES/HENNEY/SISSON 
EU POSTS PASS TO AGRICULTURE AND ECON 
GENEVA FOR USTR AND AGRICULTURE 
DEPT FOR EUR/WE, EUR/PPD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR SENV ECON ETRD KPAO EU FR
SUBJECT: FRANCE TO INVOKE SAFEGUARD CLAUSE AGAINST MON 810 
 
REF: (A) 2007 PARIS 4660; (B) 2007 PARIS 4364; (C) 2007 PARIS 4731 
 
PARIS 00000078  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
Sensitive but unclassified, please protect accordingly. 
 
SUMMARY AND BACKGROUND 
 
¶1. (SBU) On the evening of January 11 the office of the Prime 
Minister issued a press release initiating the safeguard clause 
against MON 810 in France until a reevaluation of this variety 
occurs at the European level.  The GOF justified this action by 
applying the precautionary principle, which is enshrined in France's 
constitution, based on a literature search performed by a high 
authority on GMOs.   The president of the high authority had stated 
several days earlier that there were "serious doubts" about MON 810 
on the basis of its inquiry.  His statement was immediately refuted 
by 12 of the 15 scientists on the committee.  This authority's 
review of MON 810 was precipitated by a process known as the 
"Grenelle of the Environment," a wide-ranging public debate promised 
by President Sarkozy during his election campaign.  As part of this 
process the GOF also drafted a biotechnology coexistence law, which 
will be debated by the French parliament in the coming months.  End 
Summary 
 
¶2. (SBU) The component of the Grenelle process on GMOs ended with an 
apparent deal between the GOF and the French farmers' union, FNSEA, 
that a temporary freeze would be announced on MON 810 (the only 
biotech variety grown in France).  In exchange, a new law creating a 
framework for biotech cultivation (as required by the EC) would be 
put into effect in time for this year's planting season, while an 
interim authority would review the safety of MON 810. 
 
¶3. (U) In December 2007, the French government requested that this 
interim authority, divided into two groups, one of scientists, and 
the other of lay people including farmers, politicians and 
non-governmental organizations examine MON 810.  Its president, a 
senator, also chaired the GMO working group in the Grenelle process. 
 Concurrently, a temporary freeze was placed on MON 810. 
 
¶4. (U) As the January 11 deadline for the committee's work 
approached the environmental lobbies, angry that the temporary 
freeze was set to expire on February 9, demanded that the GOF invoke 
the safeguard clause and declare a moratorium against MON 810 as Min 
Environment had promised them.  Fifteen activists, led by Jose Bove 
began a highly-publicized hunger strike several days ago, which they 
vowed to maintain until a moratorium was announced. 
 
¶5. (U) The GOF responded to this pressure.  On January 8, French 
President Nicolas Sarkozy said during a televised press conference 
that if this committee of experts raised doubts on the safety of MON 
810, he would use a safeguard clause.  The following day, the 
authority released its conclusions.  Its president was widely quoted 
as stating that there are serious doubts about the safety of MON810, 
based on "a number of new scientific findings negatively impacting 
fauna and flora" and long-distance dissemination.  Despite the fact 
that this proclamation was publicly disputed by 12 of the 15 
scientists on the high authority as well as the president of the 
National Assembly, the invocation of the safeguard clause was 
announced on January 11. 
 
¶6. (U) During the final days of the authority's deliberations, 
discussion of the government's proposed law on biotech coexistence 
was removed from the Senate's docket, but after strident objections 
from both the Senate and the president of the leading farmers' 
union, it was reinstated (but for a date that will delay its 
conclusion until after municipal elections scheduled for March. 
 
PUBLIC REACTION AND COMMENTARY 
 
¶7. (U) Factual reporting on the GMO issue has been steady in the 
national print and electronic media since the beginning of the 
month, but in the last week commentary has started to revolve around 
three themes:  first, that the French government purposefully 
orchestrated its actions on GMOs to gain advantage in the municipal 
elections; second, that the Environment Grenelle meeting in October 
2007 drew unprecedented attention to the issue of GMOs and 
sensitized the French public, and finally, concerns about the 
reaction of the U.S. in the event of a GMO ban in France. 
 
PARIS 00000078  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
 
¶8. (U) Commentaries at the end of the week highlighted the 
tug-of-war over the GMO ban.  On January 11, centrist business daily 
La Tribune emphasized the ire of the principal farmers' union, the 
FNSEA, as well as that of the grain farmers ORAMA, which claims that 
"serious doubts" of the Biotech Interim Committee are motivated by 
nothing more than political interests and were "written solely to 
provide the government with the necessary justification to invoke 
the safeguard clause" and regrets this decision for farmers, for the 
planting seed industry, and for the functioning of the European 
process. 
 
¶9. (U) In the January 13 issue of Le Journal du Dimanche, the 
President of the National Assembly, Bernard Accoyer, penned an op-ed 
in which he wondered if France can realistically outline its future 
with regard to GMOs on the basis of a study that was hastily carried 
out.  "The GMO issue is a complex one. It calls into question our 
very concept of progress and society...  We should be careful not to 
make GMOs the 21st century subject of a trial for heresy." 
 
¶10. (U) For La Tribune, "the GMOs' fate is pending" and the 
"moratorium on GMOs is turning into a political quarrel."  Nathalie 
Kosciusko-Morizet, State Secretary for Ecology is quoted saying that 
the European Commission will likely be sensitive to the signal that 
France is sending to the Commission since it is questioning the 
appropriateness of selling Monsanto 811, Monsanto 810's little 
brother. 
 
COMMENT 
 
¶11. (SBU) The Sarkozy Administration has been trying hard to 
manipulate this issue for domestic political reasons.  As indicated 
in paragraph 10, however, a strong anti-GMO faction, including the 
Environment Ministry and Minister of State Borloo, are also 
manipulating the policy with the intent of putting France in the 
forefront of a European anti-GMO movement, just in time for France's 
EU presidency.  End Comment. 
STAPLETON