EU Court: GM Crop Locations Must be Made Public

The EU's highest court, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, has ruled that EU governments have no right to conceal the location of fields where genetically modified crops have been released. Scientists fear that such information could provoke public disorder and may lead to the destruction of GM crops. But the court stated that "information relating to the location of the release can in no case be kept confidential," and public-order considerations "cannot constitute reasons capable of restricting access to the information."

In 2004, Pierre Azelvandre asked the local authorities in his home province of Alsace, eastern France, to tell him where GM plants had been released in his area. The authorities refused, saying that divulging such information could place farmers at risk from GMO opponents. Azelvandre filed a case to a French court, which asked the Court of Justice for a ruling.

Read the press release at http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/256120,eu-states-cannot-cover-up-gmo-sites-court-rules.html and http://curia.europa.eu/en/actu/communiques/cp09/aff/cp090016en.pdf