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

Hungary's government sees a good chance that an upcoming meeting of European
Union environment ministers will allow it to maintain its ban on genetically
modified crops, the Environment Ministry said, February 2007.

Hungary, one of the bloc's biggest grain producers, became the first
country in eastern Europe to ban GMO crops or foods when it outlawed the
planting of MON 810 maize seeds, marketed by U.S. biotech giant Monsanto, in
January 2005.

A meeting of EU ministers in December slapped down an attempt by the
European Commission to order Austria to drop a similar ban. Hungary expects
the same to happen when its case will be on the agenda on Feb 20.

"We hope that after the lobbying of recent weeks and knowing the development
of EU countries' opinion it will be possible to preserve the ban," State
Secretary Kalman Kovacs told a news conference.

Only four countries - the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Sweden and the
United Kingdom - supported the Commission's proposal to order Austria to
lift its ban, and Hungary said it also saw enough support for its stance in
the 27-nation bloc.

If Budapest is forced to lift its ban it may consider going to court, Kovacs
said.

Farmers are unlikely to plant GMO crops in Hungary in any case as it has
passed what it called Europe's strictest GMO law, imposing administrative
barriers to GMO cultivation in case Budapest is forced to lift its complete
ban.

"In practice such cultivation will not start in Hungary," Kovacs said.

The Hungarian law prescribed a 400-meter buffer zone between GMO and
conventional crops.

Farmers also need the approval of neighboring landowners and users to plant
GMOs - which is complicated in a country where many plots are small, rented
or farmed in cooperatives with many members.

[www.checkbiotech.org]