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

France may face a fine of more than 38 million euros (US$50.3 million) from
Europe's top court for its failure to update national laws on genetically
modified (GMO) crops and foods, the European Commission said December 2006.

The Commission, the EU executive, has often warned France to comply with
EU law and integrate into its national statute book an EU directive on the
environmental release of GMOs.

Apart from the lump sum fine, the Commission also asked the European Court
of Justice (ECJ) to order Paris to pay 366,744 euros a day until French law
adequately reflected the EU directive, it said in a statement.

France was ordered by the ECJ to comply with European law in 2004. It then
received two written warnings from the Commission.

"European legislation on GMOs seeks to ensure the highest protection of
health and the environment," EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said.

"It is therefore difficult to understand why France has not complied with
the judgment of the court. The failure to transpose the EU directive on the
deliberate release of GMOs may now result in fines," he said.

The directive, agreed by EU governments in 2001, regulates how GMO crops may
be grown and approved across the bloc and ranks as the EU's main law, of
around five, on biotech crops.

It covers the cultivation of GMO seeds for crop or seed production and also
includes imports of GMOs from other countries and their processing for
industrial purposes.

EU governments had a deadline of October 2002 to revise their national
legislation to include the law, known as the Deliberate Release directive.

[www.agbios.com]

------------------------------------------
Posted to Phorum via PhorumMail