(Adds details of vote and quotes)
BRUSSELS (AFP)--European Union nations refused Monday to force
Austria and Hungary to allow the cultivation of U.S. biotech
company Monsanto Co. (MON) genetically modified corn, rejecting a
European Commission initiative, the Czech E.U. presidency said.
Only four of the 27 E.U. nations - the U.K., Finland, the
Netherlands and Sweden - supported the E.U. executive's bid to
force the two member states to lift their ban.
E.U. environment ministers, meeting in Brussels, voted on a call
from the commission to lift provisional bans on growing Monsanto's
GM corn, which Austria and Hungary have imposed.
A commission spokeswoman said the E.U. executive "notes the vote
of the member states."
However, she insisted that the move to force Austria and Hungary
to drop their bans must continue.
"We can't drop it," said spokeswoman Barbara Helferrich after
the vote.
If science says there is no evidence that the product is
dangerous then "there is no reason" to go against it, she said.
"You can invoke the precaution principle but you have to prove
it at some point."