Austria Says EU Progress on GMO Crop Law Too Slow

[lovuian]

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/42046/story.htm

MAINZ, Germany - Austria's farm minister attacked the EU executive on Monday for dithering over rules for separating traditional, organic and biotech crops, saying too many issues were unresolved over Europe's biotech crop policy.


In February 2006, EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel disappointed many biotech-wary countries by saying a Europe-wide law on crop separation -- known as "coexistence" in EU jargon -- was not necessary, reversing previous suggestions that she might be ready to propose such a law.

Two months later, then-EU president Austria hosted a conference on coexistence where it became clear that EU countries wanted the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, to start drafting more specific crop-growing guidelines.

Little has happened since then. Last month, Commission officials said work was not due to start in earnest until the second half of 2007 and then, maybe, take up to two years as experts sifted through scientific data on plant varieties.

The first plant variety to be examined will be maize, at present the only biotech crop that is grown on EU-27 territory.
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Looks like the EU has its problems with GM foods