Insect-resistant crop | Despite opposition, new seed from DuPont and Dow Chemical will be approved in European Union
BRUSSELS, Belgium (Reuters) — European Union ministers were deadlocked on whether to let a new strain of genetically modified corn be grown for human consumption.
The deadlock cleared the way for the bloc’s executive arm to automatically approve the crop.
European Commission endorsement of insect-resistant Pioneer 1507, developed jointly by DuPont and Dow Chemical, would end a decade-long debate and break Monsanto’s monopoly in Europe’s small market for GM crops.
GM crops are widely grown in North and South America and Asia but generally unpopular in Europe, where public opposition is strong and environmentalists have raised concerns about the impact on biodiversity.
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Ministers and diplomats from 19 of the 28 EU countries opposed approval, but under the bloc’s weighted voting system, that was not enough to reject the crop.
Instead, the commission is now legally obliged to approve it, European health commissioner Tonio Borg said.
He could not specify when, but EU rules state the commission must decide “without undue delay.”
He said extensive research had shown that the crop, whose developers first applied for authorization in 2001, was safe.
DuPont Pioneer said in a statement that the EU had “a legal obligation to itself, to its farmers and scientists and to its trade partners” to support the approval of safe new agricultural products.
EU authorities have approved only two other GM crops for commercial cultivation: a corn type and a potato. The potato was later blocked by a court.
France has vehemently opposed the new GM maize. Britain has backed it, arguing that Europe risked becoming “the museum of world farming.” Germany said last week it would abstain.
France warned that the EU was in danger of stoking euro skepticism ahead of European Parliament elections in May by granting approval, based on arcane legal rules, in the face of staunch opposition.
“For us it’s an incomprehensible decision because the majority of EU member states do not want genetically modified (corn),” said Thierry Repentin, France’s Europe minister.
Said Marco Contiero, Greenpeace’s EU agriculture policy director: “Approval by the commission would be irresponsible because of the environmental risk, untenable because of widespread political and public opposition and legally compromised because the commission has forced it through without the required consultation.”
Spain supported the new corn variety, saying its farmers needed to be able to compete with those in non-EU nations that can grow GM produce, while Britain said there was a clear scientific case for GM crops.
Borg said the commission would revive a separate proposal on GM cultivation that would allow individual member states to ban GM crops if they wished, while others could allow them.
Member states have in the past failed to agree on that proposal, but Borg said he was “cautiously optimistic” countries could set aside their differences.
