Danes Fail to Win EU Majority for GM Crop Ban Rules
Increased cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops in Europe remained a distant prospect on Friday, after governments failed to agree a plan to let them decide individually whether to grow or ban GM plants.
Environment ministers from the 27-nation bloc met in Brussels to debate a Danish compromise designed to break a deadlock in GM approvals, but failed to agree the plan after opposition from Germany, France, Britain and others.
Before the meeting, Britain had been seen as the most likely to change its position, which could have been enough to secure majority EU backing for the plan.
But with Britain demanding major changes to the compromise to withdraw its opposition, an official from the Danish EU presidency said it was hard to see how London’s demands could be met without losing the support of other EU countries.
“I wouldn’t call this proposal completely dead,” Danish Environment Minister Ida Auken told reporters after the meeting.
“There were some countries saying that the time is not right for Europe right now, that Europe wasn’t ready. I will look if Europe is ready in June before I call time on this proposal,” she said, referring to the next scheduled meeting of EU environment ministers.