At a meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council on 12 June 2017 in Luxembourg, eleven member states support joint German-Hungarian initiative on signing European Soy Declaration.

At the meeting, head f the Hungarian delegation, Deputy State secretary Katalin Tóth highlighted the fact that by including Hungary’s GMO-free status in the Constitution it is the Hungarian Government’s express goal to do everything possible to reduce its dependence on imported feed soy in the mid and long term. In addition, Hungary is committed to supplying livestock with excellent quality, GMO-free proteins, which conforms to both market and sustainable agriculture requirements, while taking into account increased consumer demand for foods that are not produced using genetically modified soy and soy protein.

Ms. Tóth pointed out that in January 2015 Minister of Agriculture Sándor Fazekas launched the “Alliance for a GMO-Free Europe” initiative, an important milestone of which will be the European Soy Declaration. “The fact that in addition to Hungary and Germany, who are putting forward the proposal, Austria, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, France, Romania, Greece, Belgium, Croatia Finland and Luxembourg also assured us of their support at the Council meeting, is an outstanding success”, the Deputy State secretary added.

The Declaration will be signed at Hungary’s Permanent Representation in Brussels on the sidelines of the next meeting of EU Agriculture Ministers on 17 July.

(Ministry of Agriculture Press Office)