Welcoming Parliament's support for the exclusion of food from cloned animals from rules on the authorisation of novel foods, EP rapporteur Kartika Liotard (GUE/NGL, NL) said that the Commission can no longer ignore the will of the majority of citizens*.

"While a majority supports my ethical objections to the industrial production of cloned meat for food, the Commission has so far ignored our calls to regulate this properly. Cloning animals means that the surrogate mothers must suffer considerable pain with significant chances of disfiguring. More than half of all cloned cows, pigs and sheep die prematurely due to defects and diseases - food from such animals should not end up on our plates" Liotard said after the vote.

In 2008, the European Food Safety Authority concluded that the health and welfare of a significant percentage of clones had been found to be below par.

"We will continue to press the Commission to produce a separate legislative proposal to prohibit food from clones and their offspring in order to protect consumers and uphold environmental and animal health standards."

Parliament/Council conciliation talks on the 'Novel Foods' dossier will begin in September.

*Eurobarometer 9 October 2008 - majority of EU citizens not willing to accept animal cloning for food production, majority said it was unlikely that they would buy meat or milk from cloned animals even if a trusted source stated that such products were safe to eat.

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