A growing number of European countries are challenging the European Commission’s decision to authorise the cultivation of BASF’s antibiotic-resistance genetically modified (GM) potato, said Greenpeace. France and Poland have announced that they are joining Hungary, Austria and Luxembourg in a legal challenge to the European Court of Justice.

The EU’s highest legal body, the European Court of Justice, has ruled that the public must have access to information about location of genetically modified crops. It’s the latest decision on a very controversial issue. [...] ”The right of public access to information applies to releases of genetically modified organisms,” the ECJ said in its decision. ”The information relating to the location of the release can in no case be kept confidential.”

The European Union's highest court fined France 10 million euros ($12.9 million) on Tuesday for failing to update the country's laws on genetically modified (GM) crops and foods.

EU envrionment ministers continued to disagree on whether member states should be allowed to establish GMO-free zones for sensitive areas, although they did concur on the need for better long-term environmental risk assessment of GMOs. Following a number of informal discussions earlier this summer, the EU-27 environment ministers debated the bloc’s GMO authorisation procedure in a Council meeting on 20 October. But member states clashed on the issues of protecting sensitive and protected territories and establishing GMO-free zones.

U.S. biotech company Monsanto said on Thursday France’s decision to ban one of its genetically modified varieties of maize was illegal and would be harmful to the sector. [...] Monsanto said the committee had not turned up any scientific proof which had not already been reviewed by the EU, which had authorized use of MON 810 throughout the 27-nation bloc in 1998. ”There is no doubt that the (committee’s) opinion does not fulfill any of the criteria which would allow ... the French state to suspend the application of a legal authorization based on a rational and scientific evaluation,” Monsanto said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Saturday announced a ban on Monsanto's MON 810 GM maize in France, the only GM maize variety presently legal to grow within the European Union. Farm activist José Bove publicly finished his hunger strike against the crop while Monsanto and the large farmers association complained.

French activist and head of the farmers union Confederation Paysanne José Bove started a hunger strike demanding a moratorium on GMO cultivation in France.

France will extend its ban on the use and sale of gm maize MON 810, the only genetically modified crop grown in the country, unless a newly set-up committee on GMOs can prove it is safe. A present ban expires in February.

France formally suspended on Thursday the commercial use of genetically modified (GMO) seeds in the country until early February and ordered a biotech safety study. The future of GMOs has long been the subject of heated debate in France -- Europe’s top grain producer -- and the country’s reluctance to use GMO crops compares starkly with the United States, which is far more tolerant of the technology.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Thursday he would suspend the planting of genetically modified (GMO) pest-resistant crops until the results of an appraisal of the issue later this year or early in 2008. Unveiling the country’s new environment policy, Sarkozy said no GMO crops would be planted in France until the government had received the results of an evaluation by a new authority on GMOs set to be launched later this year. ”I don’t want to be in contradiction with EU laws, but I have to make a choice. In line of the precautionary principle, I wish that the commercial cultivation of genetically modified pesticide GMOs be suspended,” he said.