At a hearing of the Committee agricultural commissioner Marianne Fischer Boel insisted that no general, yet maybe specific bans of GM growing were justified at regional level. She announced a new network of EU member state authorities on co-existence. Representatives of the Regional governments, the EU Parliament and Economic and Social Affairs Committee insisted on the protection of non-GM farming and production and the right of the regions to ban GMOs to this end. Proponents of GMO introduction from science, industry and the German state of Sachsen-Anhalt claimed that co-existence was feasible and called for laxer rules.</p><p><a href="http://www.cor.eu.int/en/press/press_05_06065.html">Committee of the Regions: Press Releases</a></p><p><a href="http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/lex/JOHtml.do?uri=OJ:L:2005:164:SOM:EN:HTML">Commission decision on co-existence network in the Official Journal (p 50)</a>