The EU's Environment Council has today failed to support the rights of Hungarian farmers wanting to grow biotech crops.  This follows a similar position taken by the Council towards Austrian farmers when last December the Council chose to ignore the advice of the European Safety Assessor (EFSA) and rejected the Commission’s request to have Austria lift its illegal ban on the cultivation of EU-approved GM crops (see EuropaBio press release (1)). By acting in this way, the Council continues to seriously damage the credibility of the EU’s regulatory system which they helped to put in place and on which much of Europe's innovative and industrial capacity relies. Today’s decision simply denies the freedom of choice to Hungarian farmers who want to grow insect protected maize crops.

The product, Mon 810, is designed to resist the European corn borer, a widespread moth whose larva can destroy crops. It is already grown in the EU in the following countries: Spain, France, Germany, Portugal and the Czech Republic and outside the EU in Argentina, Canada, Japan, Philippines, South Africa, Uruguay and US, without any safety or environmental issues, clearly demonstrating that Hungary's objections  are without scientific foundation.

(Details of the product and safety assessment appear below (2).

The European Commission had asked the Council to overturn the Hungarian ban on the genetically-modified maize seed that has repeatedly been pronounced safe after rigorous and protracted EU reviews.

"Once again the Council is not following the advice of the EU's own expert advisory bodies”, said Simon Barber, Director of EuropaBio. “The Council has failed in its responsibility to implement its own laws and instead  today’s failure suggests that the Council favours State censorship rather than offering choice to farmers to decide for themselves as to whether or not to grow biotech crops; this is deeply discouraging for the future of Europe’s agriculture and growth of the bio-based economy.”