EU-U.S. biotechnology panel holds first meeting

BRUSSELS, Belgium (Reuters) -- A European Union-U.S. panel held its first meeting on Tuesday to review biotechnology issues which have often caused friction between the two blocs.

The EU and the United States agreed at a Lisbon summit in May to set up the independent panel to discuss contentious issues such as genetically modified food.

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Genetically modified food

The aim of the forum, which brings together 20 independent experts from the EU and the United States, "is to discuss the broad range of issues of concern in biotechnology in the EU and the United States," the EU said in a statement.

The European co-chair of the forum, which met in Brussels, is former Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers. His U.S. counterpart is Cutberto Garza, chair of the Food and Nutrition board of the National Academies Institute of Medicine.

The panel also includes farmers, scientists and ecologists.

The EU has been much more resistant than the United States to genetically engineered food products because of safety concerns over the organisms' impact on the environment.

Much to the annoyance of the United States, the world's major grower of genetically modified (GM) crops, the EU has had a de facto moratorium on approvals of new GM crops since 1998, while new legislation is being drafted.

The EU-U.S. panel has a mandate to discuss the "benefits and risks" of modern biotechnology. At least three further meetings will be held in Brussels and Washington before the forum reports back to EU and U.S. leaders in December.

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