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Victory: EU Ministers vote to keep GM food bans on 24 June

Environment Ministers from across Europe voted to allow countries to keep their safety bans on genetically modified (GM) foods. The Ministers rejected by a qualified majority all the proposals by the European Commission to lift the bans in Austria, Luxembourg, France, Greece and Germany. The Commission's move follows a dispute over GM foods at the World Trade Organisation, where the United States is claiming national bans are a barrier to trade. Over 70% of the European public are against GM foods.

Since 1997, five EU countries have banned various GM crops on safety grounds. The Commission asked all EU member states to vote on proposals requiring the five countries to lift their bans within 20 days. Ministers voted overwhelmingly to allow these bans to remain.

The Commission's proposals are seen as a direct result of the trade dispute in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that was started in 2003 by the United States, Argentina and Canada. These countries, all big producers of GM crops, claim that Europe's precautionary stance on GM food, including the national bans, are a barrier to free trade and harm their farmers. The WTO is expected to deliver an interim ruling in August.

Below you can see a list of banned GM foods in the 5 EU countries and the voting behaviour of your country.

= keep bans (better be safe than sorry)
= lift bans (cf. eat GM food, even if safety is unclear)
= abstentions (don't know or don't dare to decide)

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