The European Parliament is set to approve new rules authorising genetically modified (GM) organisms. This paves the way for lifting a two-year de facto ban on new GM products in the European Union.
The parliament was to debate plans to tighten the rules on testing and marketing new GM products in Strasbourg later today and is expected to vote the legislation through tomorrow, according to the official EU agenda.
The measures will allow new GM products to be used only after rigorous safety tests. It will authorise them for periods of only 10 years at a time and require governments to keep a register of where GM plants are being grown.
EU governments informally agreed in June 1999 not to permit any new GM products into the bloc until the new law was finalised.
The new law aims to address public concerns that plants developed scientifically by inserting genes from other species could pose as yet unseen threats to human health or the natural environment.
But it remains to be seen whether the new law will open the way for biotechnology companies to get their products on to the EU market.
GM crops - although widely accepted in the United States - have caused controversy among the European public which is wary of scientific assurances about food safety after BSE.
Reuters