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BRUSSELS, Belgium - Lacking common guidelines, the European Union does not yet cultivate genetically modified plants. The European Union faces trouble with the registration of genetically modified plants for cultivation. The European Commission, after the repeal of the moratorium and enacting strict rules for labelling, would like to move ahead. But some countries are slowing the process down. Two steps ahead, one step back – and this several times. That’s the pace of introduction of genetically modified plants into EU agriculture. A moratorium on genetically modified organisms in Switzerland has already passed. By the end of the nineties, no new GM crops were permitted for import, sale or cultivation, although this was already allowed as early as of 1990. The European Union used these five years to agree on the world’s strictest rules for labelling and traceability of GMOs in food and animal feed. On May 19th, 2004, the EU Commission for the first time since the beginning of the moratorium, authorized the import and sale of Syngenta’s maize BT-11, thus lifting the moratorium. Since then, import, sale and cultivation are in principle allowed, but only if specially approved. Simon Barber, Director of Plant Biotechnology with the Biotech Industry Organization, EuropaBio, said that the moratorium had negative effects on industry, in particular on research. “The long-lasting insecurity stopped companies from investing.“ The summary of Helen Holder, leader of the campaign against genetically engineered crops from the critical environmental organisation, Friends of the Earth, expressed a quite different view. “Thanks to the moratorium, the EU has very strict rules of labelling at its disposal. Moreover it was shown, that neither European farmers nor consumers wanted genetically modified food.“ Whereas the EU lately registered several GM products for import, no release for cultivation purposes has been allowed yet. Helen Holder spoke therefore of a “new moratorium on the cultivation of GMOs.“ At the head of the queue, two sorts of GM maize await the approval of release, one of these is Syngenta’s BT-11. According to Holder, the EU Commission will not license any release of GM crops as long as there is no common agreement on coexistence laws. “The file is in progress,“ says the spokeswoman of Stavros Dimas, EU Environmental Commissioner – without fixing a date. The EU’s tentative permission to allow GMOs is connected with the complicated processes and the disagreement between EU members. The registration and application of every single GMO is voted upon and needs a qualified majority to be approved. Great Britain, Finland and the Netherlands vote consistently pro, while Austria, Luxemburg and Greece vote against. Other countries decide depending on the case. Lately, for example, Denmark changed their vote to pro. On the other hand, many countries abstain. Thus often no majority vote can be reached, and the decision lies with the European Commission. This was the case in all approvals up to now. While on one side regions, governments and part of the population fight the registration of transgenic organisms, the EU is under massive pressure by the USA, who recently won a case at the World Trade Organisation, that ruled that EU restrictions are distorting trade. Apart from EU regulations, there are national restrictions on cultivation of GMO as well. Germany, France, Austria, Greece and Luxemburg prohibit five varieties of corn and rapeseed formerly permitted by the EU. One of these is the BT176 variety from Syngenta. The five countries refer to a protective clause in EU legislation, saying that they can forbid the use of GMOs, if human health or the environment are put at risk. Not long ago, the EU Environmental Ministers supported this view against the opinion of the Commission. Now, they plan to rediscuss the criteria of registration in general with the Commission. The European Commission won a lawsuit at the European Court against the Austrian province, Upper Austria, which had all together disallowed the cultivation of GM crops by law. However, this contradicts EU law. Upper Austria is now planning to enact a new law, not actually forbidding, rather impeding cultivation to the extent, that it will be virtually impossible to grow them. In addition, Austria and Italy are heavily committed to establishing GMO-free regions. Nineteen regions in seven countries have declared themselves as free of genetically modified organisms. "Source":[ http://www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseaction=news&doc_id=12242&start=1&control=215&page_start=1&page_nr=101&pg=1].

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