Poland to Hamper GMO Planting Despite Lifting Ban
Date: 11-Feb-08
Country: RUSSIA
Author: Gabriela Baczynska
European Union regulators launched legal action against Poland last month over plans that amounted to a national GMO ban by its biggest ex-communist member. Lawyers for the European Commission said it had no scientific justification.
"We will delay the farming of genetically modified animal feed as much as possible because there is no social acceptance for it," Agriculture Minister Marek Sawicki told Reuters during a Moscow visit with the Polish prime minister.
"According to EU law we cannot forbid it, but we can make it as difficult as possible, setting additional requirements, such as obtaining permission by neighbours," he said.
Poland's law on seeds and plant protection, adopted in April 2006, introduced a total ban of trade in GMO seeds varieties on Polish territory.
The Commission takes the view that if a region wants to ban GMO crops or products, such restrictions must be scientifically justified and crop-specific to comply with EU law.
The proposed ban must not be politically motivated, or a blanket GMO restriction that might distort the EU's single trading market.
Since the use and trade of GMO seeds was harmonised across EU member countries, the Commission had told Poland -- in a first letter sent in October 2006 and another sent in June 2007 -- that its GMO ban broke EU law, the statement said.
(Writing by Chris Borowski; editing by Michael Roddy)
