According the European Commission "new risk considerations sometimes arise spontaneously and change the scope of the risk assessment" and concerns about the safety of GMOs are "legitimate scientific concerns". The Commission even states that member states should be able to determine their own level of protection and defends national bans of initially EU approved GM varieties. What sounds like a U-turn of EU GMO policies is actually the Commissions official statement to the WTO in defense against the USA. The document was leaked today by Friends of the Earth.</p><p><a href="http://www.foeeurope.org/biteback/download/Second_EU_Submission_to_WTO.pdf">EU submission to the WTO on GMO safety of July 2004 (111 pages pdf)</a></p><p><a href="http://www.foeeurope.org/press/2005/AB_24_Feb_leaked_documents.htm">FOE press release</a>