Luxembourg, 12/02/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Land of High-Austria has criticised the Commission's refusal to allow it to ban the use of GMOs on its territory for three years. It has taken its appeal before the Court of First Instance of the EU. At the same time, Austria has taken the same appeal before the European Court of Justice.
The Austrian authorities had notified that Commission of their intention to ban GMOs, and the Commission rejected this request (see EUROPE of 3 September 2003). The Austrian Land believes that the Commission was wrong: the planned measures was "a measure of precaution and of preventive action" as per article 174 of the Treaty, it claims. Furthermore, the Commission's decision-making process does not respect the procedural principles of a State subject to the rule of law: the Commission did not allow it to be heard and the take note of the opinion of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) of 4 July 2003, which was the basis of the contested decision.
The Commission apparently also disregarded the Land's right, recognised in the Treaty (article 95, paragraph 5), to introduce national measures based on new scientific evidence and with regard to a specific problem after Community measures have been taken. These national measures aimed to safeguard the environment in a region almost entirely divided up into small structures, and where organic farming was going from strength to strength. High-Austria referred to the report of an engineer, Werner Müller, who believes that it is impossible for traditional ecological vegetable production and the production of genetically modified organisms to co-exists over a large surface area of this province.
Austria and the Land: two identical appeals
Austria has brought an appeal on the same dossier to the European Court of Justice, as Member States must bring cases to this body and not the Court of First Instance. According to observers, it is highly unlikely that the two bodies will handle the case at the same time. One may well step down in favour of the other.