Indecisive Council could lead to GM crop approval

The European Commission will approve the first genetically modified (GM) crop for growth in the EU since 1998, if member states reach no decision on the biotech potato next Monday (16 July).

Agriculture ministers will vote on a proposal to approve the potato, developed by BASF to be antibiotic-resistant, at the first Agriculture Council meeting under the Portuguese presidency. The voting is expected to be split with an insufficient majority either to approve or reject the proposal.

According to EU ‘comitology’ decision-making rules, after a three month deliberation period on GM authorisations, if "the Council has neither adopted…nor indicated its opposition…the proposed act shall be adopted by the Commission".

A six-year moratorium on GM authorisations ended in 2004, when a modified sweet-corn variety was approved for animal feed by the Commission. Other GM processing imports have been approved in this way since then.

But potato EH92-527-1 would be the first crop authorised for cultivation in the EU since before the moratorium.

The Commission had hoped that a potato crop might overcome longstanding national resistance to genetic modification, since it poses less of a cross-fertilisation risk than do GM grains and is not intended for human or animal consumption.

But EU sources say that opposition from countries led by Greece, Austria, Hungary and Luxembourg will still block approval at the Council meeting. A vote was taken off the agenda of an Environment Council meeting last month when Germany, the then holder of the EU presidency, saw that no decision would be reached.

A Commission environment spokeswoman said it was "premature" to speculate on Commission action before agriculture ministers had a chance to vote. But she confirmed that "if there is no decision either for or against the crop, the Commission has to decide in favour of its original proposal - which was for approval".

A study by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in 2005 concluded that "the potato EH92-527-1 is unlikely to have an adverse effect on human health or the environment".

Marco Contiero of environmental group Greenpeace said that the EFSA report was inadequate and that the phrasing of the comitology law left the Commission enough legal ambiguity to not approve the potato. "Antibiotic resistant traits in the potato risk spreading to bacteria and viruses that feed on the plants," Contiero said.

The Commission has no deadline for making a decision on the potato but, according to sources, will be likely to take action soon after the agriculture vote.

The European Commission will approve the first genetically modified (GM) crop for growth in the EU since 1998, if member states reach no decision on the biotech potato next Monday (16 July).