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The decision is seen as a sign of the European Commission's resolve to speed GM approvals

BRUSSELS (July 28/Reuters) - The European Commission on Wednesday approved six genetically modified (GM) maize varieties for import to the bloc in a sign of its desire to speed up European Union decisions on the controversial technology.

The EU's executive granted the approvals unilaterally after EU farm ministers failed to reach a decision on the applications in June. The approvals, which are valid for 10 years, cover imports for food and animal feed, not for cultivation.

"The six adoptions of today are the result of a usual and standard procedure concerning the authorisation of GMOs to be used in food and feed and have no link with the recently adopted package on cultivation," the Commission said in a statement.

Last month the Commission proposed an overhaul of the bloc's rules on GM cultivation, which if approved would allow member states to decide whether to grow or ban GM crops in their territories. [ID:nLDE66B1T0]

The proposals followed a political commitment from Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso last year to give member states greater power on cultivation decisions, a bid to break a deadlock between EU governments on GM approvals.

Many will see the Commission's approval, just one month after governments failed to reach accord, as evidence of the executive's determination to speed up GM decision-making.

TRADE CONCERNS EASED

The decisions open the way for fresh imports of the approved GM maize varieties from countries such as the United States, Brazil and Argentina.

In June the Commission told EU governments that failure to approve the varieties could lead to a repeat of last year's disruption to animal feed imports.

That was caused by the EU's zero-tolerance policy on unapproved GM material in imports. Shipments of animal feed from the US were refused entry to the bloc after minute traces of unapproved GM material were discovered in the cargo.

The Commission has said it will propose a small tolerance margin for unapproved GM in imports later this year to resolve the issue, but until then the only solution is for the EU to approve varieties individually for import. [ID:nLDE65922N]

One of the decisions renewed a previous EU approval for the insect-resistant Bt11 maize -- developed by Swiss-based biotech company Syngenta -- which expired in 2007.

The other five covered new approvals for "stacked" maize varieties, developed by combining existing insect-resistant and herbicide-tolerant GM maize varieties together with using conventional plant breeding techniques.

One of the five was developed by Syngenta. The Commission also approved maize products developed jointly by subsidiaries of U.S. chemical companies DuPont and Dow Chemical containing the Herculex® I insect protection and the Herculex® RW trait stack (also known as 1507x59122 stack or as Herculex® XTRA®), and maize products containing the Herculex® RW, Herculex® I and Roundup Ready®.

Corn 2 trait stack (also known as 59122x1507xNK603 stack) now are permitted for import into the European Union (EU).

; and Genuity VT Double PRO (MON 89034 X NK603) and YieldGard VT Triple (MON 88017 X MON810) developed by Monsanto.

The final step in the approval process is publication of the decision by the European Commission.

U.S. Farm Group Urges Sanctions Against EU for Its Slow GM Approvajs

The American Farm Bureau Federation, in comments given to the administration Monday (two days before the Commission's approval decisions), complained the EU still has not complied with a 2006 World Trade Organization ruling against its "de facto" moratorium on approving new varieties of biotech crops for sale in the 27-nation bloc.

"The inability of the EU to operate a timely and predictable regulatory process ended U.S. corn exports (to the EU) in 1998 and has reduced corn byproducts substantially," the Farm Bureau said in its recommendations for President Barack Obama's National Export Initiative.

"If the EU does not immediately begin to make timely, science-based regulatory decisions on pending and future applications, soybean exports also are at serious risk," the farm group said. See full report from Fox News

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