2005-03-10 | permalink
At the council of environment ministers Mrch 10th Hungary, Germany, Sweden, Cyprus, Italy, Denmark, Belgium, Greece, Poland, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia supported Austrian criticism of the EU Commissions policy on Monsantos Bt-maize Mon810, the only GMO presently allowed for cultivation in the EU. Austria and Hungary have banned Mon810 nationally against the 1998 EU approval. Poland also banned all 17 Mon810 varieties recently aproved by the Commission in the Common seed catalogue. Austria argues that no monitoring plan is in place and, as the old approval did not follow the new rules on GMOs, it had to be re-assessed in 2006 anyway. In the light of new scientific arguments against the safety of the plant, the 13 member states suggest to withold releases in 2005</p><p><a href="http://www.saveourseeds.org/downloads/at_council_Mon810_march05.pdf">Austrian submission to the Council on Mon 810</a></p><p><a href="http://eu.greenpeace.org/downloads/gmo/PRonBroadSupportForAustrianGMOConcerns.pdf">Greenpeace press release</a>
