By Laura Dixon in Brussels and Salamander Davoudi in London
Austria may be forced to lift a ban on importing genetically modified
maize after EU ministers on Tuesday failed to reach an agreement on the
issue. Although 15 member states supported Austria?s decision to restrict
the import of GM maize, while only four supported the European Commission?s
proposal to force Austria to lift the ban, neither side received a qualified
majority.
This proposal, which would force Austria to accept the import of two
GM products for animal feed (MON810 and T25), was the third time the
commission and Austria have come head-to-head on the issue.

Previous attempts by the commission to force Austria to lift its ban
were defeated in 2004 and 2006 by environment ministers. Those outvoted
proposals had a wider remit- attempting to lift the ban on both the growing
and import of crops. The current proposal would allow Austria to keep its
ban on cultivation of the product.

The failure of EU ministers to reach a decision by qualified majority
voting means that the final decision will lie with the commission.

The environment commissioner Stavros Dimas said that the commission
would ?take note? of the strong concerns of member states.

?There are two main reasons why people supported Austria here,
firstly, out of opposition to GMOs, and secondly, because of a belief that a
member states? position should be respected,? he said.

Their decision to oppose GM crops, she added, had a political
dimension while the commission?s decision on was purely scientific.

?If there are objections to our position they should be based on
scientific criteria,? she added.

Only four member states, the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden and Estonia,
supported the commission?s proposal to force Austria to lift its ban. Some
15 country?s voted against it.

Last year the World Trade Organization ruled that European
restrictions on the introduction of GM foods violated international trade
rules, and gave the 27-member bloc until November 21 this year to loosen its
regime.

Now that the decision about Austria lies in the commission?s hands, it
could be possible to comply with the WTO deadline. Once a decision has been
made, Austria would have 20 days in which to respond.

Any non-compliance on Austria?s part to a commission decision could
see the subject go to the European Court of Justice.

Marco Contiero, a policy director on GM crops at Greenpeace said: ?The
commission, supported solely by four EU governments, is trying to force GMOs
on to the European market.?

?[This is] against the predominant positions expressed in Council and
the will of the majority of EU citizens.?

One of the crops, MON810, is produced by Monsanto, the US agribusiness
that dominates the GM seed industry. It is the only GM product that is
allowed to be cultivated in the EU and was approved by the commission in
1998.

GM products for import and cultivation face opposition in a number of
member states.

MON810 is banned in Hungary and Poland, and last week the French
president, Nicolas Sarkozy, decided to postpone any further planting of the
crop pending the results of a report due early next year.


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