Over the weekend, Malta, Slovenia and Luxembourg filed last minute applications to ban cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops on their territories.

The applications, submitted just before the EU Commission’s deadline on Saturday, were made in line with new compromise measures which allow member states to opt out of growing GM crops, once the crops have been approved for the EU as a whole. The last minute applications bring the number of EU member states wishing to ban GM crops from at least part of their territory up to 19 out of 28.

In Britain, England is isolated as the only region willing to allow cultivation of the crops, after Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales all submitted opt outs. These opt outs will now go before the biotech companies, who are able to object to the applications. Member states in turn will then be able to respond to any objections.

Commenting on Friday, Wales’ deputy food and farming minister Rebecca Evans said, “These new rules proposed by the European Commission provide Wales with the necessary tools to maintain our cautionary approach by allowing us to control the future cultivation of GM crops in Wales. It will allow us to protect the significant investment we have made in our organic sector and safeguard the agricultural land in Wales that is managed under voluntary agri-environment schemes.

“These crops have not been developed for Welsh growing conditions and would be of no real benefit to Welsh farmers at this time.  I will of course keep this position under review and am keeping an open mind on future GM developments and more advanced genetic techniques.”

The opt outs cover the only GM crop licensed for cultivation in the EU - Monsanto’s MON810 maize - and seven other GM crops currently awaiting authorisation.

Pro-GM critics of the compromise measures have said they will interfere with the EU’s single market rules, whilst environmentalists have said that the new measures are not strong enough, and will leave member states wishing to restrict GM cultivation open to legal challenges from biotech companies.

Also commenting on Friday, European Greens’ food safety spokesperson Bart Staes MEP said, the
response to the bans, from over two-thirds of the EU by both population and land area, demonstrate the weight of opposition to the controversial technology in Europe.

Staes said, ”It is imperative that the Commission and the minority of pro-GMO governments both respect and actively support all those EU governments that have opted to ban GMO cultivation. There are serious concerns that the legal framework for these opt-outs, under the EU rules finalised earlier this year, is not watertight. This could leave governments subject to challenges by biotech corporations. Those member states opting-out of GMO authorisations must therefore have the full support of the Commission and other EU governments.

"Beyond this, there is a need to properly reform the EU's authorisation process: we cannot persist with the current situation by which authorisations proceed in spite of flawed risk assessments. EU Commission president Juncker must deliver on his promise to ensure the EU authorisation process is also reformed to reflect the consistent democratic opposition to GMOs in Europe."