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

Austria, current president of the European Union, looks like the only
country that might face an order to lift its bans on certain genetically
modified (GMO) products, senior European Commission officials said, April
2006 by Jeremy Smith .

Between 1997 and 2000, five EU countries banned specific GMOs on their
territory, focusing on three maize and two rapeseed types that were approved
shortly before the start of the EU's six-year moratorium on new biotech
authorisations.

Last June, the Commission, the EU's executive arm, tried to get all the bans
scrapped. The World Trade Organization (WTO) has also attacked these
"national safeguards", as they are called in EU jargon, for breaking
international trade rules.

But it got a stinging rebuff from EU environment ministers, which rejected
proposals for the five states -- Austria, France, Germany, Greece and
Luxembourg -- to lift their restrictions.

It was the first time that EU countries had managed to agree anything on
biotech policy in years, since as a bloc, the EU is consistently divided
down the middle on GMO crops and foods.

The Commission's environment department is now expected to resubmit draft
decisions for lifting the national GMO bans to the EU-25, following a
reassessment of each ban's scientific justification by the European Food
Safety Authority (EFSA).

EFSA is expected to give its opinion on the bans very soon.

EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas usually declines to be drawn on
his plans for the national bans. But officials and industry observers expect
him to bow to WTO pressure and demonstrate to the complainants in the
case -- Argentina, Canada and the United States -- that he is taking action
on GMOs.

"Let's see what they (EFSA) have to say first," he told reporters on Friday
in reponse to a question on his intentions.

PRODUCTS MOSTLY WITHDRAWN

In the meantime, the companies manufacturing the particular GMO products
that were the subject of the original bans have withdawn several of them
from the market.

One senior Commission official said the companies had now withdrawn most of
the products in any case, with only two remaining -- both relating to the
bans in force in Austria.

Austria has banned two GMO maize varieties: one in 1997 and the other in
1999. The first was against MON 810 maize made by US biotech giant Monsanto
and the second against T25 maize made by German drugs and chemicals group
Bayer.

As last June's meeting showed, an EU order for a government to lift its
national GMO ban can prove extremely unpopular.

This is especially true in countries such as Austria where opinion is
strongly opposed to biotech foods and there is a strong movement to set up
GMO-free zones.

Not only that, to try to do this to the current holder of the EU's rotating
six-month presidency might run the risk of attracting a lot of sympathy from
other EU governments -- meaning the Commission might face a second
embarrassing defeat.

One solution could be to wait until after Austria's EU presidency runs out
at the end of June and Finland takes the helm, officials suggested. But to
wait for too long could also be seen as "undue delay" by Argentina, Canada
and the United States and possibly spark more complaints at the WTO, they
said.

[www.planetark.com]

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