EU governments slam Brussels' GM crops plan

Italian Agriculture Minister Giancarlo Galan confirmed Italy's traditional anti-GMO line by saying that the Commission proposal "would fragment the Common Agriculture Policy," and that is contrary to "the EU treaty and WTO rules".

However, he did not completely oppose the idea of using GMOs, as his predecessors used to do. "Experimentation is the keyword," he said at a press conference following the EU Council.

His Spanish colleague, Elena Espinosa, whose country has been traditionally been in favour of GMOs, expressed similar concerns. "Commission proposals will fraction the internal market and are against WTO rules," she said.

"The proposal would give way to a renationalisation of the agriculture policy, which should instead remain a European competence," she added.

ALDE MEP Corinne Lepage (France), who is the European Parliament's rapporteur on the GMO proposal, said: "Questions linked to legal certainty, the functioning of the internal market or the application of the conclusions of the December 2008 Environment Council on the improvement of sanitary and environmental risks are all elements which must be considered to evaluate this proposal."

Greenpeace EU agriculture policy director Marco Contiero said: “EU countries should not be duped into accepting the proposal as it stands and taking the pressure off the Commission to improve crop safety and prevent GM contamination. Unless safety testing is improved, the Commission will authorise a raft of new GM crops that have not been properly tested”, he said in a statement.

"Until Europeans and farmers can be sure that the dangers of GM crops are thoroughly addressed, EU ministers should demand a moratorium on new authorisations," he added.

Carel du Marchie Sarvaas, director for agricultural biotechnology at EU bioindustry lobby EuropaBio, said, "these proposals appear to give carte blanche to ban safe and approved GM crops in any country or region regardless of the needs or wishes of their farmers".

"In addition, the proposals will inject further legal uncertainty for those farmers that do wish to grow these crops. The upshot is that even as we contemplate a future fraught with the challenges of globalisation, climate change, food insecurity and shortage of natural resources, we will be denying our farmers the ability to use cutting edge technologies, already available to their counterparts outside the EU, to help them to deal with these same challenges," he added.