www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

EU - environment ministers crossed swords on genetically modified (GMO)
foods on Friday as the 25-nation bloc failed again to reach consensus on
approving imports of a GMO maize type, diplomats and officials said,
December 2005.

The requested use for the maize, a hybrid strain engineered by US biotech
giant Monsanto was for processing into food and animal feed, not for
cultivation.

"There was no qualified majority for or against, as always. It now goes back
to the (European) Commission for approval," an EU official told Reuters. The
rubberstamp authorisation usually takes place in a few weeks, but can take
longer.

The ministers' failure to agree means that the Commission, the EU executive,
gains the power to authorise imports of the maize into EU markets - the
approval method that has been used in the EU five times since May 2004 to
approve new GMO products.

Two countries changed their votes from a committee meeting of EU member
state environment experts held in September. Germany voted in favour after a
previous absention, while Poland changed its earlier absention to a vote
against authorisation.

Producing hybrid maize involves making separate lines that are then crossed
to make a hybrid seed, allowing for desirable traits to be selected to
enhance agricultural performance.

The maize is a cross between two distinct maize types known as MON 863,
which can provide plant protection against certain pests, specifically corn
rootworm, and MON 810, which is resistant to other pests such as
caterpillars and certain worms. Both strains used to manufacture the hybrid
maize have already won EU authorisation separately -- MON 810 maize in 1998,
and MON 863 which the Commission approved in August.

Even though the EU has now lifted its six-year unofficial moratorium on
approving new GMO products, national governments have consistently clashed
over biotech policy.

EU member states have ended meetings in deadlock around 15 times in a row -
either as ministers or as national experts - on whether to approve new GMO
products, usually for use in industrial processing or as animal feed.

The last time they agreed on a new GMO approval was in 1998.

[www.planetark.com]

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