Just one month after Monsanto officials denied that remarks made by one of the seed giant's senior European executives heralded a change in its business practices, it appears the company has made a U-turn within Europe.

Speaking to news agency Reuters on Wednesday, Monsanto Europe's President and Mimage expired

At the time, however, Monsanto's UK representative Mark Buckingham said the announcement did not represent a new direction for the company. He told Farming Online, "We're not changing anything. Our EU business has always focused on conventional seeds. We recognise that it's not economically practical to bring [GM technology] forward in Europe, as the regulatory system here has been politicised and is no longer science-based."

Although Monsanto director Madero said that the company would continue to focus on producing conventional seeds for the European market, he said it would still push for greater acceptance for GM crops imported into Europe used in animal feed, primarily from the United States and South America. The company said it had made the decision to withdraw its requests due to a lack of commercial prospects for the seeds in Europe; even Monsanto's approved MON810 maize accounts for less than 1 percent of the EU maize crop and is banned in eight states, with Italy set to become the ninth.  

On Thursday, Mr Buckingham offered clarification, "We will be investing several hundred million dollars in Europe over a decade to expand our conventional seed production and breeding. In parallel, biotech crops are highly successful in the rest of the world. In order to fully support both of these success stories, we will no longer be pursuing approvals for cultivation of new biotech crops in Europe. Instead, we will focus on enabling imports of biotech crops into the EU and the growth of our current business there."

He added that not all of the files would be withdrawn immediately, rather they will be withdrawn after the company has considered its "obligations to business partners" on an individual basis. The withdrawals will affect six varieties of maize (not including the MON810 renewal, which Monsanto will still pursue) and one variety each of soybean and sugar beet.

Monsanto's decision comes 18 months after German biotech and chemical firm BASF announced it would be relocating its GM business to the United States, citing hostility to GM crops in Europe. In January 2012, BASF withdrew its Amflora potato from sale in the EU; the potato, used for ethanol manufacturing, was only the second GM crop to have been licensed in the bloc since 1998 and had performed poorly.  

As a result of the stalemate over GM in the EU leadership, licensing applications for many varieties of GM crop have been on hold for several years; the renewal process for Monsanto's Yieldgard Maize has dragged on since 2007.