EU court annuls approval of BASF's Amflora GMO potato

Europe's second-highest court has overturned a decision by the European Commission to allow the cultivation and sale of a genetically modified potato developed by German chemicals group BASF.

The General Court of the European Union said on Friday the Commission had failed to follow the bloc's rules when approving the Amflora potato, which is genetically modified to produce extra starch for use in the paper industry.

While Amflora is no longer grown in Europe - BASF withdrew the product in 2012, citing opposition to the technology - the ruling may raise new concerns about the EU's complex and much-criticised approval system for GMO crops.

It could also delay a decision on a separate Commission proposal to approve cultivation of a new type of modified maize developed jointly by DuPont and Dow Chemical.

"Because the Commission significantly failed to fulfil its procedural obligations, the General Court has annulled the connected decisions," the court said, referring to the Commission's approvals for both cultivation and sale of Amflora.

A Commission spokesman said the EU executive was analysing the ruling.

"The follow-up which the Commission could take would be to appeal on a point of law, but I can't respond to you now because lawyers are still looking at the judgment," Commission health spokesman Frederic Vincent told a regular news briefing.

Environmental campaigners welcomed the ruling, and said the Commission had no choice but to withdraw its cultivation proposal for the new type of GMO maize, known as 1507, or face a similar outcome.

"Today's legal judgment demolishes the Commission plans to rush through the approval of Pioneer-DuPont's GM maize 1507 for cultivation," Greenpeace's EU agriculture policy director, Marco Contiero, said in a statement.

Currently, only one GMO crop is grown commercially in Europe - an insect-resistant maize developed by Monsanto. It is sown on about 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) of farmland, mainly in Spain.

That level is dwarfed by an estimated 170 million hectares of GMO crop cultivation globally, mainly in the Americas and parts of Asia.

While repeated EU scientific assessments have concluded that GMO crops are as safe for humans and the environment as their conventional counterparts, consumer opposition to the technology in Europe remains strong.

Rules Broken

The surprise approval of Amflora was one of the first decisions taken by the EU's then-health commissioner, John Dalli, who took office in February 2010. Dalli was forced to resign from the Commission last year after being linked to a tobacco bribery scandal.