EU Threatens Poland With Lawsuits, Fines Over GMO Ban

Warsaw, Poland (AHN) - Poland continues to defy the European Commission's law on genetically modified products by banning the entry of GMO goods into the country. It has only 20 days to respond to EC's accusation that the country's laws violate EC regulations.

The continued ban may result in fines of as much as $381,407 (260,000 euro) a day. A ruling by the EU court that Poland violated the law will also expose Warsaw to lawsuits GMO trading firms may file against the Polish government.

The previous Polish Environment Ministers banned GMO items because surveys showed almost 80 percent of the country isn't willing to buy GMO goods. Michal Milewski, acting spokesperson of the Environment Ministry, said, "There is no final opinion from the new minister yet. As a general rule, we do not want to admit genetically modified crops in Poland, as they threaten biodiversity."

The EC is not against banning certain GMO crops if is is scientifically justified and crop-specific. EU Agricultural Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel explained, "We might have to consider excluding an individual GM product from a given area if, for scientific reasons, it genuinely could not co-exist with non-GM crops in that area."

Boel added, "But... we cannot simply ban all GM crops from an entire region because of hostility to GM products per se. Where a product has been shown not to be harmful, in principle the rules of the free internal EU market apply."

Previously the EU's Court of First Instance had ruled against Austria which proposed a regional GMO ban, and warned Italy of legal consequences for passing a law banning GMO crops until all regions have come up with legislation how farmers should separate GMO crops from organic and traditional plants.