GMOs may grow by diktat

EU biotech experts are to debate whether to tell countries to grow GMOs. This is after Brussels decided to try and force France, Greece and Hungary to lift so-called ‘safe-guard measures’.

These prevent the cultivation of types of genetically modified corn BT11, 1507 and MON 810 in spite of EU-level approval for them. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has said there is no specific scientific evidence to justify the bans. The EU’s Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas is said to have initially opposed authorising the crops in question but the EFSA opinion made him go along. A committee of experts, representing the EU’s 27 member countries plus Commission officials, will meet next month and in March to vote on whether to approve draft orders aimed at lifting the bans. Ecology group Greenpeace accuses the Commission of “dictating to European governments its favourable position on Genetically Modified Organisms”.More about: Agriculture

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