Deciding over Controversial Issues: Voting Behavior in the Council and the European Parliament on Genetically Modified Organisms

There are only few policy areas in the European Union (EU) that are as controversial as genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The Council has repeatedly failed to meet the requirements for a qualified majority vote, which indicates the extent to which the EU member states are split in their preferences regarding the regulation of GMOs. These differing preferences have an important impact on the global political economy and will affect the negotiation of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Research has shown that national considerations are more important than partisan ideology. Studies dealing with the European Parliament (EP) presented evidence that party politics dominates over national considerations. Given the elevated level of controversy, we argue that decision-making on GMOs is an instance at which voting behavior is affected by ideological considerations – even in the Council. We test this expectation by analyzing the member states’ voting behavior on a number of authorization requests brought in by the Commission between 2004 and 2014 and on a recent vote in the EP on the authorization of GM maize Pioneer 1507. Indeed, we see signs of party politics in Council voting. However, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) display signs of country-oriented voting. Both the manifest signs of party politics in the Council voting and country-oriented voting of the MEPs are in contrast to previous findings in the literature. We contend that the specificity of biotechnology as a controversial and value-loaded issue leads to the unconventional voting patterns in the Council and the EP.