GMOS : COURT RULES AGAINST EU EXEC, ANNULS APPROVAL OF GM AMFLORA POTATO.

Europe's second-highest court has annulled the authorisation for cultivation in EU territory of genetically modified (GM) potato Amflora developed bythea German chemicals group BASF. In a ruling (Case T-240/10), published on 13 December, the Court found that the Commission "significantly" failed to comply with strict authorisation rules when giving its green light to BASF for cultivation of starch-potato Amflora in the EU. A decision to this effect was taken by the EU executive, on 2 March 2010, after the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published, in 2009, its second positive opinion on the Amflora potato. The additional opinion was requested by the Commission following an inconclusive vote in the Council. The EU General Court (EGC) stated, however, that the Commission has "infringed the procedural rules of the systems for authorising GMOs" by not referring the request for authorisation back to the committees (Regulatory Committee on the Release into the Environment of Genetically Modified Organisms, and Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health) at this stage. By doing so, the Commission deprived, according to the court, the member states of an opportunity to comment on EFSA's new opinion or to amend the draft decisions (in parallel to cultivation request, BASF also initiated a procedure for authorisation of production of animal feed from Amflora potato pulp).

"The General Court finds that, by having decided to request a consolidated opinion from the EFSA, and by basing the contested decisions on, inter alia, that opinion without allowing the competent committees to comment on the opinion or on the amended draft decisions, the Commission departed...