Diplomats from the European Member States yesterday held a closed door meeting on proposals for a 'compromise' package of measures that would allow genetically modified (GM) crops to be licensed for cultivation in Europe, whilst providing legal grounds for anti-GM member states to ban the crops.

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Although GM crops have been grown commercially for around 20 years, their cultivation has largely been limited to the Americas. At present, GM crops are banned in eight EU member states, though pro-GM EU authorities and seed companies have challenged the legality of these bans.

Sources present at the meeting in Brussels told Reuters that ministers on both sides of the GM debate supported the proposals, which French and German delegates said could open the door for national bans, while the pro-GM UK government would be free to adopt the controversial crops. Only Belgian representatives stood aside in voting on the proposals, which will be formally discussed in Luxembourg in June.

Similar compromise measures were discussed under the Danish presidency of the EU in 2012, but failed to garner support over concerns that they did not offer adequate protection to banning states. Anti-GM governments have agreed to the current Greek compromise measures, in response to assurances that they will be allowed to ban controversial crops even if varieties have passed health and safety assessments.

However, environment groups have warned that the current set up of the opt-out mechanism still gives too much power to GM companies, as there would be a presumption in favour of planting GM and proposals could give companies the legal right to decide whether a ban should be allowed. Friends of the Earth Europe warned this week that "If companies refuse [to acknowledge bans], governments [would be] forced to fall back on vague, non-scientific legal grounds upon which to ban GM crops, opening the door to legal challenges."

Adrian Bebb, food campaign coordinator for Friends of the Earth Europe said on Tuesday, "It is an affront to democracy that companies like Monsanto will be given legal status in any decision to ban their products. Governments must be able to ban unwanted and risky GM crops without needing the permission of the companies who profit from them."

"For more than 15 years national governments have fought against new GM crops and strongly defended their rights to ban them. This proposal is a poisoned chalice that fails to give member states the solid legal grounds to ban genetically modified crops."

FoE is calling on EU legislators to reject the proposal that national governments must request permission to ban crops, and demanding a strengthening of the legal basis for banning GM crops.

Europabio, which represents GM seed companies, has also criticised the plans. A spokesperson for the lobbyists said the compromise could lead to states banning GM crops on "non-scientific grounds" and claimed the measures would go against the aims of the European single market.

Although proponents of GM, including UK environment secretary Owen Paterson have claimed that European opposition to the technology risks turning the continent into "the Museum of World Farming" (in a speech given at Europabio's headquarters in Brussels), GM is viewed as a peripheral issue at best in the seminal IAASTD report on agriculture, which was compiled by 400 expert scientists, and research from New Zealand last year showed that Europe's GM-free agriculture system has achieved better yield gains and reductions in agro-chemical use than US agriculture, which is heavily dependent on GM crops and the associated chemical products.    

If the compromise measures are backed by the EU Council next month, the package will be passed on to the newly elected Parliament.