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BRUSSELS: EU politicians on Wednesday will sign a new law on the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops in the European Union, clearing the way for a wave of approvals after years of deadlock.

One of the first crops to get European Commission endorsement is likely to be an insect resistant maize known as 1507, whose developers DuPont and Dow Chemical have been waiting 14 years for the EU executive to authorise its cultivation in the EU.

Widely-grown in the Americas and Asia, GM crops in Europe have divided opinion. Britain favours them, while France is among the nations that oppose them.

The compromise law seeks to keep everyone happy by giving member states the right to ban GM crops even after European Commission approvals.

"All GM maize is banned for cultivation in France and we will not change this," French Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll told reporters when asked what France would do if 1507 were cleared for cultivation.

Under the old rules, member states could provisionally ban or restrict a GM crop on their territory only if they had new evidence it constituted a risk to human health or the environment or in the case of an emergency.

The GM industry says the new law, which gives greater scope to restrict GM farming, flouts scientific evidence that it is safe, while environment campaigners say it will open the floodgates to crops they say are linked to a decrease in biodiversity.

Vytenis Andriukaitis, the EU Commissioner for health and food safety, said the new law is: "A positive step in aligning the legislation with citizens' expectations while respecting the rights of all parties."

After Wednesday's signing in a full session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, the law will be published in the EU's Official Journal on Friday and enter into force 20 days later.

EU officials speaking on condition of anonymity said they expect the Commission will at some point after that go ahead with approval of 1507 maize, which the previous health Commissioner said last year he was legally obliged to approve.

Read more:
European Union law on GM crops clears the ground for wave of approvals

The U.K. has become the latest European Union country to reject the concept of a standing European army, which has been touted as a way to counter overt Russian hostility. Latvia and Poland joined Britain in shooting down European Commission President Jean-Claude Junckers latest iteration of the idea Tuesday.

Our position is crystal clear, a U.K. government representative said. Defense is national, not an EU responsibility, and there is no prospect ofthat position changing and no prospect ofa European army.

Juncker, a past prime minister of Luxembourg and the present head of the EUs executive arm, has floated the notion in the past, arguing that such an army would unify foreign policy in the region and strengthen pan-European values.

A common army among the Europeans would convey to Russia that we are serious about defending the values of the European Union, Juncker told Germanys Welt am Sonntag newspaper this week.

Polish and Latvian officials, whose nations sit next-door to Russia, have wholly rejected the idea. Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna told the Polish radio station Radio Zet it would be a very risky idea, while Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma was also cool to the idea. There is a possibility it could be discussed in July at the European Council, but its important to check whether this might be duplicating NATO, Straujuma told the Latvian public broadcaster LTV.

Currently, 22 of the 28 member states of the EU are members of NATO, the U.S.-led alliance whose charter specifies that an attack on one member is an attack on all, thereby eliciting immediately a collective response by the worlds most powerful militaries. NATO leaders are attempting to encourage the alliances members to allocate more money for defense, although the target of getting them to annually spend 2 percent of gross domestic product for such a purpose constitute pipe dreams for many states.

Prominent defense expert Claudia Major of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs told the German news outlet Deutsche Welle that a shared army would create some difficulties. Its a wonderful idea, but people can have it without worrying it will really be implemented, Major said. If you look at what a European army would mean, the most important question is: Who decides on sending soldiers where? Who decides on whom they might kill, or who might kill them?

Link:
EU President Floats European Army, But European Nations Want Nothing to Do With It

EU MPs have backed a deal to cap the fees that banks charge businesses to process payments by credit and debit cards, saying it will lower costs for shoppers.

The deal overwhelmingly approved by the European Parliament in Strasbourg applies to both cross-border and domestic card payments, it said in a statement.

"This legislation will establish a level playing field for payments across Europe," said centre-right MEP Pablo Zalba, who steered the plan through parliament.

Legislators voted in favour by 621 to 26.

The deal will lead to a reduction of about six billion euros ($A8.43 billion) a year in hidden fees, according to the European Commission, the powerful executive arm of the 28-nation European Union.

When a customer uses a credit or debit card, the merchant's bank has to pay a fee to the buyer's bank for the service, which in turn charges the merchant a fee to cover this cost. That is then added to the price of goods on sale, affecting all customers, including those who do not pay by credit card.

Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said the new rules were "good for consumers, good for business and good for innovation".

"For too long, uncompetitive and hidden bank interchange fees have increased costs of merchants and consumers. Today's vote has brought us another step closer to putting an end to this," she said.

The new cap for cross-border debit card transactions will be 0.2 per cent of transaction value and will take effect within six months of the deal's formal approval by ministers, which is expected this northern summer.

For domestic debit card transactions there is a five-year transition period before the cap takes effect.

See more here:
European MPs back credit card fee cap

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