Jeremy Smith, Reuters 20 Feb 09;
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union biotech experts will discuss next week whether to allow more cultivation of genetically modified crops but little progress is expected to break years of EU deadlock on biotechnology.
Two GM maize types are to be considered at the Wednesday meeting. If the experts fail to agree, which officials and diplomats say is the most likely outcome, both applications will be escalated to EU ministers for a decision.
The crops are Bt-11 maize, engineered by Swiss agrochemicals company Syngenta, and 1507 maize -- jointly developed by Pioneer Hi-Bred International, a unit of DuPont Co and Dow AgroSciences unit Mycogen Seeds.
"It's almost certain to be a non-opinion," said one official at the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, meaning that there was unlikely to be enough majority under the EU's weighted voting system to approve or reject the applications: stalemate.
The European Union has long been split on GMO policy and its 27 member countries consistently clash over whether to approve new varieties for import but without ever reaching a conclusion. GM crop cultivation is the "big one," diplomats say, in that no new modified crops have been approved for growing since 1998. There has been a string of GM approvals since 2004, however, but only as imported products for use in food and feed.
While diplomats say approving a new GM crop for growing is nigh on impossible in the EU's current climate, if next week's GM applications get sent to ministers and then there is a second voting stalemate, they would then return to the Commission.
If that happens, the Commission would -- probably -- end up issuing standard 10-year licenses. But that may take some time.
Even now, more than 10 years later, only one GM crop has won EU approval for commercial cultivation: a gene-altered maize made by U.S. biotech company Monsanto, known as MON 810.
Other companies want to change that situation and have filed lawsuits against the Commission for what they say is too much delay in getting their products approved and into EU markets. Pioneer is one of those complainants and filed its case in 2007.
"The fact is: the 1507 maize cultivation application has been unduly delayed since it was submitted nearly eight years ago, has been imported into the EU since 2006 and has been approved for cultivation in seven countries already," said Mike Hall, Pioneer's communications manager for Europe.
(Editing by Keiron Henderson)
Another German minister calls for GMO maize ban
Reuters 21 Feb 09;
HAMBURG (Reuters) - Germany should reconsider its policy of permitting farmers to grow maize with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and consider banning biotech crops, Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Friday.
Gabriel is the second minister to raise a change of GMO policy this week, following Farm Minister Ilse Aigner's statement she may review permission to grow MON 810 GMO maize, developed by U.S. biotech group Monsanto Co..
Germany should consider following countries like France, which had imposed a unilateral bans on GMO maize cultivation, Gabriel said in a statement.
"We should also follow this prudent course taken by our neighbors," Gabriel said.
MON 810 maize has been approved as safe to cultivate by the European Union and all farmers in the bloc are theoretically free to grow and sell it. The maize is resistant to the corn borer, whose caterpillars damage plantings.
France and Greece have imposed unilateral bans which are controversial in the face of the EU wide approval and are claimed by some to break EU regulations.
Moves are under way to force both countries to lift their bans, although EU biotech experts on Monday failed to agree on issuing an order to both countries to allow GMO crop cultivation.
Gabriel said Germany should review its policy of permitting GMO cultivation before this season's crops are sown in the spring.
"The top priority in the use of genetic technology in agriculture must be placed much more on the precautionary protection of people and the environment," Gabriel said.
In early February, German farmers registered intentions to plant 3,567 hectares of GMO maize for the 2009 harvest, up slightly from the 3,207 hectares cultivated in 2008.
But the total is an insignificant part of the German annual maize cultivation of around 1.8 to 2.0 million hectares.
Earlier this week Monsanto hit back at German government criticism, saying its MON 810 GMO maize had been approved as safe by Germany's own Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety along with the European Food Safety Authority, the EU's key food safety agency.
(Reporting by Michael Hogan; Editing by James Jukwey)
