September 16, 2011

 

France retains ban on GM corn

 

 

Despite EU court opinion, the French government refuses to lift ban on growing GM corn in France.

 

According to the French daily Le Figaro, the French minister for the environment, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said she was convinced that MON810 should be kept from French fields.

 

MON810 is one of only two commercially grown GM crops in Europe. Under the current EU system, authorisation for GM crops is given at the European level, after the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) complete a health and environmental safety assessment.

 

A proposal has been made by the European Commission to change the current system so that each country can decide on its own to "opt out" of transgenic crops. But that has yet to be approved by member states. Meanwhile, France and five other countries have used a "safeguard clause" in the current law to ban cultivation of the approved crops.

 

But the EU court ruled that France should have told the EU Commission about the ban ahead of time. In her reaction, Morizet said that France will invoke the safeguard clause again, and that the ban on MON810 will stay in place in the meantime. EFSA and France's own Food Safety Agency have both said the ban on MON810 is unjustified.

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