Deutsche Welle, 13 December 2013
The EU
General Court has banned a genetically modified potato developed by German
chemicals firm BASF. The decision by the EU's second-highest court annulled an
EU Commission decision authorizing the spud, named Amflora.
The General Court had annulled an EU Commission decision authorizing BASF's genetically
modified (GM) potato ‘Amflora' because the European Union's executive had
departed from the rules governing the authorization procedures, the European
Union's second-highest court announced on Friday.
The ruling
came as EU members Hungary, France, Austria, Poland and Luxembourg challenged
an EU Commission decision in 2010 that had cleared BASF's Amflora potato for
industrial starch production and animal feed use.
The
Commission gave its approval after the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
said in a consolidated opinion in 2009 that it believed Amflora posed no threat
to human health or the environment. However, the Commission failed to submit
the EFSA report, which included dissenting opinions, to two advisory committees
made up of representatives of EU member states.
The EU
General Court noted that if the Commission had submitted the report in
compliance with the rules, the result of the procedure or the content of the
decision could have been substantially different.
“Because
the Commission significantly failed to fulfill its procedural obligations, the
General Court has annulled the contested decision,” the court said in its
ruling.
BASF
dropped GM spud plans in EU
In 2011,
BASF already stopped selling its Amflora potatoes in the EU because the
genetically modified (GM) crop was struggling to gain a market share amid
widespread popular and political resistance.
In 2012,
the German chemical giant announced that it was moving its biotech headquarters
to North Carolina and halting the commercialization of GM products for the
European market.
Apart from
the BASF potato, there is only one other GM crop approved for commercial
growing in the EU, which is a strain of maize called MON810 developed by
US-based seed giant Monsanto.
uhe/tj (AFP, dpa)
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