EU farm ministers are seeking to ease concerns over the labelling of food containing genetically modified (GM) ingredients.
The European Commission has proposed that food containing more than 1 per cent of GM products should be automatically labelled. The threshold has been rejected by the European parliament, which wants a tighter minimum level of 0.5 per cent.
The GM labelling issue was on the agenda of EU agriculture ministers, although they were unlikely to come up with an agreement, EU diplomats said. EU environment ministers are also expected to take up the problem Thursday.
EU food and consumer protection commissioner Mr David Byrne called at the environment ministers' meeting for seven EU countries to lift their bans on new GM products. The seven - Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy and Luxembourg - have kept the ban in place since 1999.
The EC argues Europe risks falling behind the United States, where farmers have enthusiastically embraced GM crops.
The agriculture ministers were also discussing commission proposals to reform the EU's costly Common Agricultural Policy. Countries such as France, whose farmers stand to lose most from CAP reform, fiercely oppose the plans.
AFP