Press Release: Commission proposes fines against France for failure to adopt biotechnology legislation

The European Commission on 1 February 2006 decided to refer France to the European Court of Justice a second time for failure to comply with a judgement by the Court from 2003 over biotechnology legislation. Despite the Court ruling and subsequent warnings from the European Commission, France had still only adopted partial national legislation to give effect to an EU law on the safe handling of genetically modified micro-organisms. The Commission intended to ask the Court to impose a daily fine of €168 800 on France to apply from the day of a second judgement by the Court in this matter.

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