June 14, 2010

 

EU to ease approval process for GM crops

 
 

The EU plans to change the approval process for growing genetically modified (GM) crops and this would ease a system that blocked all but one application in more than a decade.

 

Previously, the EU's approval process has hindered biotech companies from expanding the European market for biotech crops.

 

The Health and Consumer Affairs commission in March approved a modified potato developed by BASF, the first such move in a decade, after an approval process that began in 2003.

 

The commission said March 2 it planned to come up with a proposal by summer that would allow EU members more choice on whether to allow growing of genetically modified crops.

 

Commission spokesman Roger Waite said governments have been dragging their feet under current rules to delay approvals. "Our hope is that this might accelerate the approval procedure for GM crops for cultivation," Waite said. "All authorisations will still take place on a European-wide basis. A member can then choose for this opt-out clause."

 

The proposals only cover growing biotech crops, not their use in food and animal feed, according to Waite.

 

Since ending a six-year moratorium on new gene-modified products in 2004, the EU has let them be imported for food and feed uses.

 

The EU approved only two genetically modified crops for cultivation, compared with about 150 being planted worldwide. EU biotech plantings fell 12% to 94,750 hectares last year as Germany abandoned insect-resistant corn, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications said in a report in February. Six EU nations planted engineered corn, with Spain accounting for 80% of the region's total, the industry group said.

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