Brussels, 15/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - Member state ambassadors meeting within Coreper are to discuss, on Friday 17 January, the Commission's proposal aimed at authorising the cultivation, in the EU, of the highly controversial genetically modified maize MON 1507 by Pioneer-Dupont, in order to follow up a ruling from the Court of Justice that had condemned the delay incurred in the authorisation procedure (see EUROPE 10985).
The EU Council which, on 6 November last, had the dossier referred to it in order to approve authorisation (as the European Commission had hoped) has until 12 February to give its stance by qualified majority. The Commission has already made it known that, if there is no qualified majority to approve or reject the authorisation, then it could itself take the decision to authorise the crop.
Before the Greek Presidency cancelled the session, it was planned that the Agriculture Council in January should discuss the matter. The hot potato inherited by the Greek Presidency has now become a real headache.
At procedural level, three options have still to be resolved: - either to decide that another Council formation will discuss the matter; - or to bring forward the next Agriculture Council meeting (normally scheduled for 17 February) to comply with the deadline of 12 February; - or to have an evaluation made by the legal service regarding the extent to which the 12 February deadline could be deferred in order to call on the Agriculture Council of 17 February to examine the issue. We would point out that the European Commission presented its decision to take the matter forward as a necessity caused by the EU General Court's ruling of 26 September (Case T-164/10) (see EUROPE 10958). (AN/transl.jl)