The European Court of Justice confirmed that statutory GMO-free regions
are illegal. The Court dismissed the appeals of Upper Austria and the
Austrian Government against their ban on the use of biotech crops in the
region of Upper Austria.
Yesterday, the European Court of Justice confirmed that statutory
GMO-free regions are illegal. The Court dismissed the appeals of Upper
Austria and the Austrian Government against their ban on the use of
biotech crops in the region of Upper Austria.

"This is great news for farmers, for the scientific based risk
assessment of the EFSA and for the EU biotech regulatory framework which
the Member States put in place. Industry now calls on the region of
Upper Austria to drop its illegal and unscientific opposition to
approved biotech crops and allow Austrian farmers the choice to grow
GMOs if they so wish." said Johan Vanhemelrijck, Secretary General
EuropaBio - the EU association for bioindustries. "Attempts to create
so-called "GMO-free regions" should be seen for what they are: a denial
of the freedom of choice for farmers and consumers."

The Judgement says that practices like organic agriculture and small
scale farming cannot be used as an argument to ban cultivation of
approved biotech crops. Both the Commission and the Commissioner for
Agriculture, Mariann Fischer Boel have stated in the past that "farmers
should be able to produce in a traditional way, be it conventional or
organic, according to the high quality and safety standards in the EU.
And they should as well have the choice to produce GM-crops, if they see
advantages in doing so and find a market for them."

Farmers can take official action against their region if it tries to
stop them from cultivating EU approved biotech crops, while freedom of
choice guarantees that individual or groups of farmers are free to
cultivate conventional, organic or biotech crops. Today's decision
confirms that it is illegal for regional or national governments to
impose bans and deprive individual farmers of the choice to grow biotech
crops which have been approved for commercial cultivation in the EU.
www.checkbiotech.org