In negotiations on Monday, the EU Council expressed its "willingness to re-open discussions" on moves to authorise genetically modified crops on a state-by-state basis.

EU leaders claim that current disharmony is hampering the licensing process in the bloc. Voting last month on a variety of GM maize (TC1507) was blocked by 19 member state representatives, though this was not enough to constitute a legal majority and the vote ended in deadlock.   

Under the compromise measures discussed on Monday and tabled by current EU president Greece, once a GM crop variety had been assessed as safe and passed on the EU level by the EFSA and European Commission, states could decide whether or not to allow cultivation of the crop on an individual basis.

Out of the 28 member states, eight currently have bans on GM crops in force, though the legality of their restrictions has been challenged.  

The Greek-drafted compromise measures are similar to a package first mooted in 2010, but rejected in voting last year under the Danish presidency of the EU. The Greek presidency will convene its first working party meeting to examine the proposals on 13 March, with the aim of reaching a political agreement before the end of the year.

However, some MEPs reacted angrily to the talks, which they said did not address their concerns with flaws in the current approvals process. French MEP Corrine LePage said that, if ministers adopted the "weak text" in its current form, difficult debates would ensue. The European Parliament had urged the Council not to approve maize 1507 ahead of February's vote.  

Environment groups in the EU have been highly critical of the 1507 approval process, which, having been stalled for over ten years, was conducted under old EU rules. Mute Schimpf, a food campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe said of the vote in February, "This is a clear signal: the public don't want GM, and nor do the majority of their elected politicians or governments. The European Commission must end its love-affair with biotech companies and their GM crops, and stop this toxic maize from reaching Europe's fields."

In the build up to talks on the compromise measures, Germany, which stood aside in voting on GM variety 1507, agreed to back the proposals, though the EU's largest agricultural producer France (which has opposed state-by-state authorisations in the past) appears to remain obstinate.