Farm ministers split again over GM crops

European farm ministers will be asked to approve five genetically modified (GM) products - four types of GM maize and one GM potato - for use in food or feed on Monday (18 February), but deadlock is expected.

EU sources predict that the vote will follow the pattern of previous ministerial discussions on GMs, with an insufficient majority either to reject or approve the proposal. If the Council of Ministers fails to muster the required majority, it falls to the European Commission to decide whether to authorise.

The most contentious product that the ministers will discuss is a biotech potato (EH92-527-1) made by German chemicals company BASF and engineered to produce high quantities of starch for industrial purposes. Last summer ministers could not agree on a proposal for cultivation of the potato in Europe. Next week’s vote is on approving its use in feed. The EU’s authorisation procedures for GMs distinguishes between cultivation and use as food and feed.

One EU source said: "We know we will have a really dogmatic opposition around the table." Currently France and Austria are leading opponents of biotechnology, while the UK and the Netherlands usually vote in favour.

The BASF potato is particularly contentious because green campaigners argue that it conflicts with existing EU law. It carries an antibiotic resistance marker (ARM) gene, an increasingly obsolete construction in biotechnology, used by companies to test if genetic modification is successful. Campaigners are concerned that the use of ARM genes spreads antibiotic resistance. In 2001 an EU directive said that marker genes which might have adverse effects on human health and the environment should be phased out by the end of 2004.

Marco Contiero, a policy director at Greenpeace, said that the BASF potato was inconsistent with the 2001 directive and "simply not legal".

A spokesman for Markos Kyprianou, the European commissioner for health and consumer protection, said: "The BASF potato has been assessed by the European Food Safety Authority and by the European Medicines Agency and is considered as safe."

The European commissioners are scheduled to have an orientation debate on GM foods in March. Some commissioners - Peter Mandelson (trade), Günter Verheugen (industry) want to see approval of more GM crops to avoid falling foul of international trade rules. Others, such as Stavros Dimas (environment) have recommended against authorisation of GM crops, notably two maize varieties.

European farm ministers will be asked to approve five genetically modified (GM) products - four types of GM maize and one GM potato - for use in food or feed on Monday (18 February), but deadlock is expected.