EU set to approve new GM corn after Germany drops objection

Seed Daily via AFP: A new genetically modified crop, US firm Pioneer's TC1507 corn, is set for approval in Europe next week after Germany dropped its objections, several EU sources told AFP Wednesday. "Germany is moving from being against to abstaining" in a vote on the long-running controversy, said a source close to the dossier who asked not to be identified. A second source confirmed.

Ministers meeting in Brussels on Tuesday are to hand down a final decision on the cultivation of TC1507 corn after a European Court ruled late last year that the company's 2001 request for permission must be dealt with. But the 28-nation bloc is badly divided over GM crops, and the EU's complex voting arithmetic has been at the heart of a deadlock on a decision.

The European Union's general affairs ministers will decide next week using qualified majority voting -- which is weighted to take account of the bigger states. If there is no majority against due to one nation's abstention, then approval will be automatic, said the EU's Health Commissioner Tonio Borg on website Vieuws.

When the principle was last voted on in 2009, the heavyweights of Britain, France and Germany ended up cancelling each other out. Asked to allow GM cultivation in the EU, but to leave space for national and even territorial opt-outs on non-health or environmental grounds, Britain was one of six backers...

A withered corn field near Erftstadt, Germany, shot by Christian Nurtsch, Wikimedia Commons,  under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany license