EU upholds Austria, Hungary right to ban GM crops

Austria and Hungary reaffirmed their sovereign right on Monday to ban growing genetically modified maize after EU environment ministers squashed more attempts by the European Commission to lift the restrictions.

In a stinging rebuff to the EU’s executive arm, an overwhelming majority of countries — at least 21 out of the bloc’s 27 member states — voted against draft orders for Vienna and Budapest to end their GM crop bans within 20 days.

EU law provides for national GMO bans under certain circumstances if the government can justify the prohibition.

It was the third time that the Commission had tried to get Austria’s bans lifted and the second time for Hungary, with all the attempts roundly rejected by ministers in the past.

National GMO bans are the only area of EU biotech policy where countries can muster enough consensus under the bloc’s complex weighted voting rules to secure an agreement. On applications for new GM products, for example, they are always deadlocked, leading to default approvals by the Commission.

Hungary’s ban relates to MON 810 maize, developed and marketed by U.S. biotech company Monsanto and the only GM crop that may so far be commercially grown in the EU. The Commission first tried to get the ban lifted in February 2007.

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