In connection with the "lobby Minister Mary Coughlan" request below,
anyone not already aware may wish to know that under
Article 6 (PUBLIC
PARTICIPATION IN DECISIONS ON SPECIFIC ACTIVITIES) of the
Aarhus
Convention Agreement, point number
"11" reads as
follows:
"Each Party shall, within the framework of its
national law, apply, to the extent feasible and appropriate, provisions of this
article to decisions on whether to permit the deliberate release of genetically
modified organisms into the environment." As can be seen at
the following United Nations address, the vast majority of countries in Europe
have already ratified the Aarhus Convention Agreement:
http://www.unece.org/env/pp/ctreaty.htm As can
also be seen at the above address, the "
European Community" itself
ratified the Aarhus Convention Agreement on
February 17th
2005.
The Republic of Ireland's present position on the Aarhus
Convention Agreement seems to be as follows: "
I will have to check ..."
(Prime Minister Ahern TD in Dail Eireann on February 2nd 2005). For additional
information on this comment please see:
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/74361?comment_limit=0&condense_comments=false#comment147142 The
full text of the United Nations Aarhus Convention Agreement can be seen
at:
http://www.unece.org/env/pp/documents/cep43e.pdf Vercingetorix.
http://www.constitutionofireland.com/ ============================================
Brendan
Kelly <brendankellywoodlawn@yahoo.ie> wrote:
To:
<natureireland@yahoogroups.com>
From: "Brendan Kelly"
<brendankellywoodlawn@yahoo.ie>
Date: Fri, 19 May 2006 17:09:27
+0100
Subject: [nature-irl] Fw: URGENT: Mary Coughlan's vote on GMOs on
Monday
Hi Guys this is an important lobbying process re GMOs. A
quick email is all that's required!!!
Kind
regards
M.
----- Original Message -----
From: GM-free Ireland Network
To: A GMFI-MEMB-ORGS
Sent: Friday,
May 19, 2006 1:35 AM
Subject: URGENT: Mary Coughlan's vote on GMOs on
Monday
Dear friends,
Please take a minute right now to
lobby Mary Coughlan, Minister for Agriculture and Food, to vote this Monday
AGAINST an EC proposal to allow irreversible contamination of Europe’s food and
environment from GM crops.
I have just learned from documents
leaked to Friends of the Earth Europe that the EU Agriculture Ministers will
meet this Monday 22 May in Brussels to adopt measures that
will:
a.. dismiss the concerns raised by farmers, consumers,
and environmental groups at a recent stakeholder conference on GMOs organized by
the European Commission in Vienna;
a.. refuse to establish EU-wide
legislation to prevent GMO contamination of conventional and organic crops and
food;
a.. ignore the calls by 175 European regions, 3,500 local
authorities and 1,000 smaller areas in 22 EU member states for the EC to
recognise the democratic right to prohibit GM seeds and crops if they chose to
do so;
a.. not demand that liability for contamination be made
mandatory on the GM industry. Instead they will look at existing national
legislation, which is already proven insufficient.
A flood of
emails and phone calls to Mary today Friday might just convince her not to
support this dreadful attempt by the EC to contaminate our food and farming. A
protest outside the Agriculture Council meeting in Brussels will urge her and
the other Ministers to put food safety and the environment before the interests
of the transnational agri-biotech corporations.
MARY COUGHLAN
CONTACT DETAILS:
tel: (01) 607 2884
LoCall 1890 200 510
fax:
(01) 661 1013
email: minister@agriculture.gov.ie
Many thanks in
advance
Kind regards
M.
