Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, IFOAM, Coordination Paysanne and the European Environmental Bureau sent an open letter to EU Commissioner Margot Walstroem, urging her to establish mandatory labelling of GMOs in seeds at the detection level and to look at the science behind it and listing a set of questions to the EUs Scientific Committee on GMOs. The Commissioner is about to present a new proposal regarding the purity of seeds in Europe.</p><p><a href="http://www.zs-l.de/saveourseeds/downloads/ngo_letter_to_com_22_01_04.pdf">Seed letter to EU Commission</a>

The European Commission has issued a regulation establishing a system for the development and assignment of unique identifiers for genetically modified organisms. The system assigns a specific code to any GMO to enable traceability throughout the production chain. The Code will also serve to comply with the international Biosafety Protocol.</p><p><a href="http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2004/l_010/l_01020040116en00050010.pdf">COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 65/2004</a></p><p><a href="http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/news-NG.asp?id=49149">food navigator: tighter traceability</a>

For the fourth time in recent years, a committee of the US National Research Council has warned regulators and developers of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that science knows too little about how the novel organisms will behave in the real world. The report urges multiple containment systems for engineered animals and plants, reports the "Scientist".</p><p><a href="http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20040121/02">The Scientist : NRC warns on GMOs again</a></p><p><a href="http://www.nap.edu/books/0309090857/html/">NRC-Report: Biological Confinement of Genetically Engineered Organisms</a>

Amid continuing European ambivalence over the introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops and intense international pressure on the EU to lift its 5-year de facto ban on such products, a series of homegrown movements against GMO's has begun to take root in important agricultural regions around Greece. An overview.</p><p><a href="http://www.greece.gr/ENVIRONMENT/EnvironmentalPolicy/agrowingresistance.stm">GreeceNow: A growing resistance</a>

A new campaign was launched by Greenpeace in Russia under a slogan 'No transgenic products for Russians!'<a href="http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/88/351/11814_genetics.html">Russians are entitled to know.....what they eat - PRAVDA.Ru</a>

GM crops will be given the go-aheadfor a single season in Britain, in a move largely crafted to save the Prime Minister`s face, the Independent on Sunday claims. The strict conditions would make it uneconomic to actually plant it.</p><p><a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=482346">The Independent on Sunday</a>

The GM Science Review Panel has concluded its work and published a first and a supplementary second report. These have been formally submitted to the UK government and the regional governments of Scottland, Wales and Northern-Ireland. No new findings have arisen in the final report.</p><p><a href="http://www.gmsciencedebate.org.uk/report/default.htm#second">UK GM Science Review</a>

<a href="http://www.cropdecisions.com/show_story.php?id=23135">CropDecisions.com: U.S. Expects New EU Biotech Laws To Further Dampen Ag Trade</a>As the European Union prepares to launch new laws in April to label and track all genetically modified food, U.S. farmers and government officials are warning they may turn out to be stronger trade barriers than the biotech approval ban they are intended to replace. Only nine biotech agriculture commodity varieties had been cleared for consumption by the EU when it shut down the approval process in 1998. That, according to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, has cost U.S. exporters 'a few hundred million dollars...a year' in corn sales alone.</p><p><a href="http://www.cropdecisions.com/show_story.php?id=23135">cropdecisions</a>

Germany is drawing up a law to regulate cultivation of bio-engineered crops, Consumer Minister Renate Kuenast said Monday, admitting that the controversial technology was here to stay. (more details on "Nachrichten" in German.)<a href="http://www.eubusiness.com/afp/040112100853.36f26b2w">EU Business - Germany drafting law to regulate genetically modified crops</a>

Despite the official ban on cultivating genetically modified crops in Greece, independent testing found high quantities of GM cotton in this year's output, the Greenpeace environmental group said yesterday.<a href="http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100014_16/01/2004_38480">ekathimerini.com - Activists: GM cotton unchecked</a>