MORE LEGAL ACTION OVER GENETIC ENGINEERING DIRECTIVES.

As the EU Member States press on with the review of Directive 90/220/EEC on the deliberate release of genetically-modified organisms into the environment, the European Commission is still not satisfied with the way it is being applied in practice. The EU executive has decided to make an application to the EU Court of Justice against Portugal for non-respect of the two principal EU Directives dealing with GMOs (90/220/EEC and 90/219/EEC). Having examined the Portuguese legislation used to implement these Directives, the Commission concluded that it did not correctly carry over the obligations they set out. The national legislation needed should have been established by October 1991.

In the case of Belgium, the Commission decided on December 14 to send a formal letter of notice concerning an EU Court of Justice ruling of July 9, 1998 (case C-343/97) on the country's failure to adopt and notify national measures for transposing 90/220/EEC.

The Commission also made applications against Belgium and Greece for the failure to adopt and notify the Commission of national measures for transposing a Directive for adapting...