GENETIC ENGINEERING: EU COURT RULES AGAINST UPPER AUSTRIA'S GM BAN.(Genetically modified plants)

Europe Agri, October, 2005

The Genetechnology Prohibition Law, which was passed by Upper Austria's provincial parliament in January 2003, took what is known as a "precautionary stance": it argued that cultivation of genetically-modified organisms should be banned as long as the problem of cross-contamination between GMOs and non-GM crops had not been solved.

This was the first - and, so far, the only - attempt by an EU member state to set up a legally-approved GMO-free zone. But the ban, which needed the Commission's green light, never entered into force; in September, the Commission ruled that it was not justified by any new scientific evidence. Austria then appealed against the Commission's decision at the Court of First Instance.

Upper Austria defended its ban on the basis...

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