Romania spurns trend towards banning GM crops

Romania has decided to join a minority of EU countries that will allow the growth of genetically modified crops.
 

New EU rules permit the cultivation of GM crops if they are deemed "healthy and safe”.
 

The law, adopted in March, cleared the way for new GM crops to be approved after years of deadlock.
 

But it also gave individual countries the right to opt out and ban GM crops whether or not the European Commission approved them as safe.
 

Nineteen of the EU's 28 member states had applied to keep GM crops out of all or part of their territories by a deadline on Sunday.
 

This was the final date for EU states to opt out of the new European legislation.
 

Denmark, Luxembourg, Malta and Slovenia were the last to apply for a ban on October 3.
 

Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, The Netherlands and Poland did do earlier.
 

Britain is seeking a ban on behalf of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but not for England. Belgium has opted to keep the Wallonia region GM-free. Germany has also opted for a partial ban.
 

Before it joined the EU in 2007, Romania grew GM crops on a larger scale than any other European country.
 

After, the situation changed significantly, as the country altered its legislation to fit EU rules. But there is a strong pressure from both farmers and big agricultural multinationals to re-introduce GM soy, for example, on the grounds that its cultivation has proven advantages for agriculture and the economy.
 

Agriculture Minister Daniel Constantin said on Monday that Romania has no interest in opting out of the European law on GM crops.
 

"We only cultivate one type of genetically modified maize, on a very small surface, which has been approved as safe by the Commission,” he said.
 

Romania is one of a few European countries growing Monstanto's MON 810 GM maize. The genetic modification of the maize is aimed at protecting the crop against a harmful pest.
 

"We want to be allowed to cultivate GM crops... if the seed are scientifically proved to be safe and not to harm the health of people,” Laurentiu Baciu, head of the Agricultural Producers’ League, LAPAR, said.
 

But ecologists and green activists say that Romania should focus on organic farming instead of genetic engineering.
 

Agriculture still plays a significant role in Romania, which is why the issue of GM food matters. It has an agricultural surface of 14.7 million hectares of which 9.3 million hectares are arable. Almost half of Romania's 19.5 million people still live in rural areas.