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

EuropaBio has slammed the EU Agricultural Council?s decision to uphold a
Greek ban on genetically modified (GM) corn, claiming that the judgement
flies in the face of EFSA advice on biotech crops, October 2005 by Anthony
Fletcher.

The organisation, which represents Europe's bioindustry, called the
council's inability to reject the Greek Government's temporary ban on
Monsanto's MON 810 corn as ?disappointing?.

?Neither the Greek Government nor any of the authorities have provided any
validated scientific evidence to support either a ban or withholding
approval to use these products in food,? said Simon Barber, director of the
plant biotechnology unit at EuropaBio.

?Consequently it is disappointing to see the council's lack of support for
the law especially as it is was council that put in place the GM rules in
the first place.?

The council also failed to reach agreement on decisions to approve foods and
food ingredients produced from Monsanto's herbicide-resistant maize GM maize
GA 21 and MON 863, a transgenic corn used for food engineered by Monsanto to
resist the corn rootworm insect, despite claims that positive safety
assessments had been received from the European Food Safety Authority
(EFSA).

It is clear that Member States still need to be convinced that introducing
genetically modified ingredients into food production is acceptable. From
1998 to 2004 the EU imposed a ban on approving any new GM crops.

Tough new rules on GM ingredient food labelling imposed last year have since
cleared a way to end the ban, with a couple of new approvals already passed
into the Official Journal.

But as this latest council decision shows, the EU remains significantly
divided on this issue. The Commission has, to date, asked EU members over
ten times to vote on authorising a GMO food or feed product. But in the
large majority of cases, there was no agreement or simple deadlock.

EuropaBio, the European Association for Bioindustries which has 50 direct
global members and 25 national biotechnology associations representing 1,500
enterprises, will continue to lobby for GM approval.

The organisation has had some victories. Earlier this month for example, the
Upper Austria Region failed to win its case at the EU Court of First
Instance on the region's draft law to ban planting GMOs. And it is also
worth noting that under an obscure facet of the law known as the 'comitology
procedure', Brussels can actually push through Mon 863 and GA21 through to
law because the council has failed to reach a majority decision.

[www.nutraingredients.com]

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