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EXTRACT: "This is a major defeat for the biotech industry and their friends in the European Commission. Every country must have the democratic right to protect its citizens and environment. Neither the European Commission nor the WTO should be allowed to force Europeans to eat genetically modified foods."
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EU VOTES TO DEFY WTO RULING ON GM FOODS
Member States support the right to ban GMOs
Friends of the Earth Europe
PRESS STATEMENT
For Immediate Release: 18th December 2006

Brussels, 18 December - Friends of the Earth Europe has welcomed today's rejection by EU Environment Ministers of a proposal to force Austria to lift its bans on genetically modified (GM) foods and crops. [1] The proposal was tabled by the European Commission in response to a ruling by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) earlier this year, which stated that the bans broke international trade laws.

Helen Holder, GMO Campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe said:

"Today's vote was a complete rejection of the WTO's ruling on GM foods. This is a major defeat for the biotech industry and their friends in the European Commission. Every country must have the democratic right to protect its citizens and environment. Neither the European Commission nor the WTO should be allowed to force Europeans to eat genetically modified foods."

"The biotech industry's tactics have backfired. It's now time for the European Commission to put the interests of the public and the environment before those of the biotech industry."

The WTO ruling did not rule against GMO bans per se but judged that Austria had not followed the risk assessments needed under the trade-friendly WTO rules. Austria, together with all EU member states, has ratified the UN's Biosafety Protocol which allows countries to ban genetically modified crops if there is a lack of scientific certainty over their safety. The WTO disregarded the Biosafety Protocol because the complainants in the trade dispute (the US, Canada and Argentina) had not ratified it.

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For more information, please contact:
Helen Holder, GM Campainger at Friends of the Earth Europe:
Tel : +32 2 542 0182, Mobile +32 474 857 638, Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Adrian Bebb, GM Campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe:
Mobile : +49 1609 4901163, Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Rosemary Hall, Communications Officer at Friends of the Earth Europe:
Tel:+32 25 42 61 05, Mobile: +32 485 930515, Email:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

NOTES:

[1] Today (18th December), Environment Ministers met at an Environment Council meeting in Brussels and discussed a proposal from the European Commission to force Austria to drop its ban on two genetically modified (GM) maizes. The Austrian ban on the two maizes one by Bayer and one by Monsanto has been in place since June 1999.

All countries rejected the proposal apart from the UK, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Sweden.