Council rejects GMO approvals - again

On 2 March 2009, European Environment Ministers once again rejected the European Commission’s efforts to have national bans on the cultivation of genetically modified corn in Austria and Hungary lifted.

It is the third time the Commission has attempted to get Ministers to tell Vienna to lift its ban on the growing of ‘MON 810’ maize, and ‘T25’ maize [1], and the second time the EU executive has tried to get Budapest’s ban on the growing of the Monsanto corn lifted.

The EU executive tried to lift Austria’s ban on the two crops in June 2005 and December 2006. Hungary’s ban was also unsuccessfully targeted in February 2007.

Ministers from 22 member states rejected efforts regarding both T25 and MON810, a vote described by France’s ecology minister, Jean-Louis Borloo, as: "a wide qualified majority - without precedent for this subject."

"[Environment ministers] considered national safeguard clauses to be based on a more rigorous evaluation than that which had led to the authorisation of GMOs at the European Union level on the basis of earlier legislation," he added.

Mr Borloo also said that the Ministers reaffirmed their desire to see a beefed up evaluation of GMOs, taking into account territorial particularities and the crops’ potential medium-to-long-term impacts.

For further information

 Friends of the Earth’s Press Release

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