Articles

European ministers, who met on Friday in Brussels to discuss a series of compromise measures on licensing of genetically modified crops in the bloc, have failed to reach an agreement over GM policy going forward. The compromise measures were put forward by current EU presidents Denmark after debates on GM licensing ground to a halt in 2010. Whilst some governments in Europe are pro-GM, many influential agricultural powers, notably France and Italy, are staunchly opposed to the system, citing moral and environmental concerns. [...] In all, 10 member states vetoed the Danish proposals, including Britain, Germany, Spain and France. The states which chose not to support the compromise measures claimed, as had environmental campaigners, that they gave a lack of certainty over legal protection for states seeking to ban GM crops or that they risked upsetting the EU internal market.