A French moratorium imposed in 2008 on the only genetically modified crop approved for cultivation in the European Union is illegal because the French government did not follow proper procedure, the European Court of Justice ruled Sept. 8. The court said France based its decision on the wrong EU law and should have waited for an EU ruling to determine whether the ban qualified as a legitimate, temporary safeguard that was scientifically justified. While the EU high court did not rule on the scientific merits of the French ban on Monsanto's MON 810 corn crop, it said EU member states imposing measures such as France's must establish the existence of a "situation that is likely to constitute a clear and serious risk to human health, animal health or the environment."
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