EU walks a GM crop tightrope

EU governments will next Monday (18 January) get a second chance to avoid World Trade Organization (WTO) action by lifting an Austrian ban on genetically modified (GM) crops.

Ministers last June rejected a European Commission proposal to declare the ban illegal and asked instead for more scientific analysis of the environmental and health risks of GM crops.

The European Food Safety Authority concluded that there was no risk and the Commission was procedurally obliged to reissue its original proposal.

Only the UK last year voted in favour of lifting the ban and national positions are not thought to have shifted far enough to win support for the Commission proposal.

If EU member states continue to reject the proposal the union risks WTO legal action for creating barriers to international trade.

The Geneva-based trade organisation last year issued a legal verdict against a four-year EU ban on GM approvals.

The Commission could also find itself in the position of having to republish its proposal at regular intervals, unless evidence to support the Austrian ban can be found.

Member states remain wary of allowing the Commission a say in the authorisation of GM varieties, even if they themselves have chosen to invest in the crop technology.

"This is a very strange situation," said Simon Barber of biotechnology group Europabio. "Several thousand hectares of the crops in question were grown last year in countries including France, Germany and Spain."

EU governments will next Monday (18 January) get a second chance to avoid World Trade Organization (WTO) action by lifting an Austrian ban on genetically modified (GM) crops.