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NGO March for GMO-Free regions, Vienna, 05 April 2006

Vienna, 05 April 2006 - NGOs, politicians, farmers and citizens from all over Europe participated in the March for a GMO-free Europe without genetic engineering, towards the EU-conference " Co-existence of genetically modified, conventional and organic crops:  The Freedom of Choice".	Jens Karg, GMO campaigners at Friends of the Earth Austria/Global 2000, hands over the Vienna Declaration for a GMO-free Europe to the Austrian Environmental Minister Josef Pröll, the European Commissioner for Agriculture Mariann Fischer Boel and Commissioner for Environment Stavros Dimas.
Click on the photos to get high resolution ones. Photo free of charges, with photo credit "Global 2000".

Organised by a broad network of European environmental NGOs, farmers and regional movements against Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), the "March of GMO-free Regions" visualized the European-wide resistance against GMO. NGOs, politicians, farmers and citizens of the different European countries marched towards the EU-conference " Co-existence of genetically modified, conventional and organic crops:  The Freedom of Choice", organised by the European Commission and the Austrian Presidency, in Vienna on 4-6 April 2006. More than 3000 people from 20 European countries joined the march.

Friends of the Earth Austria/Global 2000 is co-organiser of the March and Friends of the Earth Europe is invited as speaker at the EU Conference, to express the NGOs demand for a strict legal framework, that avoids contamination of food, farming and the environment, and which enables local or regional authorities to declare their territories as GMO-free regions.

More information:

• On the NGO March: http://www.gmofree-europe.org/coexistence_conference.htm
  in German: http://www.global2000.at/pages/koexistenzkonferenz.htm
   
• Read the Vienna Declaration for a GMO-free Europe
   
• On the Conference: "Co-existence of genetically modified, conventional and organic crops - freedom of choice":
  http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/agriculture/events/vienna2006/index_en.htm
   
• FoEE press release, 03.04.06: EU “Coexistence” conference: Freedom of choice for whom? Friends of the Earth condemns Commission contamination policy
  http://www.foeeurope.org/press/2006/HH_03_April_coexistence.htm

Contact:
Friends of the Earth Europe will be at the Coexistence conference in Vienna from April 4th to April 6th , and will be speaking in workshop C on April 5th (at 14h30).
To contact us in Vienna:
Helen Holder, +324 74 857 638
Adrian Bebb, +49 160 949 01163

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