By James Mackenzie
France's upper house of parliament has passed a bill laying down
conditions for the growth of crops using genetically modified organisms
(GMO) after changing a key amendment aimed at limiting their cultivation.
The measure, passed by the upper house, or Senate, late on Wednesday,
is a response to European Union demands that member states formulate laws on
GMO use.


The bill has the backing of the ruling centre-right government and the
main farmers' union, but has been fiercely criticised by campaigners opposed
to the use of the technology.


It will return to the lower house of parliament, or National Assembly,
in the second half of May before becoming law.


Under an amendment proposed by Communist deputy Andre Chassaigne to
guard against contamination by GMO crops, the law makes it compulsory for
farmers to "respect agricultural structures, local ecosystems and non-GMO
commercial and production industries."


But a modification introduced in the Senate would leave it to a
government-appointed High Council on Biotechnology to fix limits on what
would constitute "non-GMO" production for crop varieties, pending a ruling
on the issue by the European Union.


Critics said the change would weaken the amendment but Greenpeace
campaigner Arnaud Apoteker, an opponent of the bill, said the fact it had
not been scrapped entirely was positive.


"We may have avoided the worst because ... the amendment was in danger
and that was what we feared," he said.


He said there was concern it could be further watered down when it
returned to the National Assembly for a second reading.


As well as attracting condemnation from the left wing opposition, the
GMO bill has caused deep divisions within the ranks of President Nicolas
Sarkozy's centre-right government.


Junior Environment Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, who favoured
tighter restrictions, accused members of her own party and her own senior
minister Jean-Louis Borloo of "cowardice" over the issue.

[www.guardian.co.uk]