The new European Commission leadership is preparing a compromise on cultivating GM foodstuffs in the EU that might end Brussels’ long political stand-off with anti-GM member states.
Some national governments, such as Austria, have long opposed cultivating GM crops in their countries, even if the EU has approved their production and use.
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The tension has sparked legal disputes between the Commission and EU Council of Ministers, so yesterday (2 March), new health commissioner John Dalli announced he would propose an EU-wide GM “authorisation system” by this summer.
Dalli said the programme would be “based on science, can be combined with freedom for member states to decide whether…they wish to cultivate GM crops on their territory”.
