According to a piece on the EU news and policy portal EurAtive.com, "Spain questions scientific advice on GMO crops", the government of Spain, the only country in the EU that has any commercial cultivation of GM crops, is preparing to challenge the recent so-called lifting of the six year long EU moratorium on new GMO products on 19 May 2004, when the Commission approved the genetically modified sweetcorn variety Bt-11 - an issue the EU's member states were divided on. This happened after new EU rules on labelling and tracability had come into force.

Spain's Environment Minister Cristina Narbona has said the government would now seek the advice of independent researchers. According to the article the Minister also "questioned whether it was wise to continue the country's extensive cultivation of GMO crops, and went on to accuse the previous conservative government of authorising a massive extension of GMO crops without waiting for scientists to reach a definitive opinion, saying, "We want to reinforce independent research in this area, and I underline the word independent, because in this country, wherethere is little scientific investigation, many researchers are privately financed by companies that want the research to have a specific conclusion." http://www.euractiv.com/cgi-bin/cgint.exe?204&OIDN=1507907&-home=home

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