The European Commission has approved imports and use in the food industry of six varieties of GM maize. The permits, valid for 10 years - the EU states - are not to be related with the package of rules recently adopted on the cultivation of GMOs.
The permissions granted on Wednesday, 28th of July, follow the same path already pursued by the Commission on previous occasions, despite the doubts on GMOs expressed by the majority of EU countries. In particular, at the latest Council of Ministers of Agriculture one month ago, the 27 reached no agreement on the line to follow. "The six genetically modified organisms involved obtained, between February and September last year, a positive assessment by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), thus moving forward on the path to get the approval under the EU legislation. Since Member States didn’t find a qualified majority to take sides against it, the dossier went back to the Commission for a final decision that could only be positive", said a spokesman.

This week's decision opens the European market to imports of GM maize from the United States, Brazil and Argentina. It is an insect-resistant maize produced by the Swiss biotech company Syngenta, and 5 new "hybrid" variety, developed and manufactured by Syngenta again but also by the American Dupont, Dow Chemical and Monsanto.

The dossier on GMOs is questionable and the majority of EU Member States have a contrary position. However it would be necessary a qualified majority to make decisions on issues like this. In addition, some countries’ viewpoints is softening, and the intention - already expressed by the Commission - is to reach a gradually greater degree of subsidiarity by giving to states the possibility to decide their own stance on this issue. The dossier on GMOs is going to be among those that will be given more space in the discussions in Brussels back in autumn, and the Belgian Presidency intends to reach a more accurate definition by the end of the year.