Ploughing Their Own Furrow: Subnational Regions and the Regulation of GM Crop Cultivation

Abstract

This chapter provides a case study in regulatory multi-level governance within the European Union, with a substantive focus on the regime in place for the authorisation of cultivation of genetically modified crops. Whilst presenting a detailed account of the supranational level regime, it seeks explicitly to write in the subnational, regional dimension to our accounts of policy evolution in this highly controversial area. The chapter considers regions’ ‘upstream’ engagement in the policy processes at EU level, through judicial challenge to EU measures as well as attempts to influence supranational level legislative reform, which is currently ongoing. In this regard, it looks both at the role of regions within this process, and within the terms of the resultant legislation. In addition, the chapter considers regions’ ‘downstream’ engagement, in their implementation and application of the existing rules. As a number of regions have sought to declare themselves GM-free zones, this chapter explores the legality of such local and regional GM crop cultivation bans, as a matter of EU law. In short, the chapter contributes further to our understandings of the place held by regions within the EU system of governance demonstrating how regions may themselves be both legal and political actors of significance within the EU order, whose interests are not always congruent with that of their Member State.

The Cultivation of Genetically Modified Organisms in the European Union: A Necessary Trade‐Off?

“…Moreover, this case study on GMOs offers an interesting opportunity to focus on the activities of subnational entities in EU policy‐making in the regulatory domain, which is not the area in which multilevel governance has most frequently been applied. Indeed, ‘most often, studies of the role of regions in EU governance have their focus on redistributive policies, which have been the home domain for the development of the literature on multi‐level governance’ (Hunt, , p. 136). Investigating the role of the subnational level in a regulatory policy area also contributes to the understanding of the internal pressures faced by the European Commission.…”

“…39–40; authors' translation and emphasis added) . Consequently, some subnational entities use the co‐existence guidelines with the objective of restricting the cultivation of GMOs, thereby increasing the pressure on the Commission that the legislative framework outlined in the 2001 Directive is untenable (Hunt, ).…”