The European Commission Wednesday recommended farmers be allowed to grow two new varieties of genetically modified crops in the European Union, only the second time it has taken such a step in the past decade, a commission spokeswoman said.

The recommendation applies to two strains of genetically modified corn: Bt-11, developed by Syngenta (SYT), and 1507, created by a joint venture between Pioneer Hi-Bred International, a subsidiary of DuPont Co. (DD), and Mycogen Seeds, a unit of Dow Chemical Co. (DOW). Experts from the 27 E.U. national governments will vote at a meeting next month on allowing the cultivation of these corn strains, spokeswoman Barbara Helfferich said.

The E.U. is divided on the issue of genetically modified crops, making it unlikely that countries will muster enough support to either support or reject the commission's recommendation definitively. The commission makes the final decision in these circumstances.

Despite public opposition, the E.U. has approved a number of biotech plants for import in recent years. But the E.U. hasn't given approval for European farmers to plant a biotech crop since 1998, when it approved a genetically modified corn developed by Monsanto (MON), the only genetically modified crop that is allowed to be grown in the E.U.

BASF SE (BAS.XE) last year sued the commission after waiting for approval to grow a genetically modified potato in the E.U. for over a decade. The commission in 2007 had recommended the potato but then asked the European Food Safety Authority to study the crop further based on new scientific evidence that it might be damaging to the environment, Helfferich said.

The EFSA is expected to released its report in March.

-By Matthew Dalton, Dow Jones Newswires; +32 2 741 1487; matthew.dalton@dowjones.com

Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.