By Philip Blenkinsop
BRUSSELS, Feb 5 (Reuters) – European Union members are within their right to ban the cultivation of genetically modified crops in part or all of their territory, the EU’s top court ruled on Thursday.
The issue came to the court after an Italian farmer planted genetically modified maize, Monsanto’s MON810, despite an Italian ban. Italian authorities ordered the farmer to destroy the plants and fined him 50,000 euros ($58,940).
The farmer challenged the order and fine before Italian courts, which sought an opinion from the European Court of Justice on whether the ban infringed the EU’s free movement of goods and freedom to conduct a business and the principles of non-discrimination and proportionality.
The EU court found that the procedure, since 2015, allowing EU members to seek the prohibition of cultivation of GMOs without any specific justification, and assuming the authorisation holder was not opposed, was not contrary to EU law.
It also found that this did not breach the principle of proportionality and did not discriminate between farmers from different EU members. The ban did not infringe the principle of free movement of goods, the court found, as it did not stop products with GMOs being imported and did not prevent consumers from buying such products.
($1 = 0.8483 euros)
(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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