The fight to protect Welsh agriculture from contamination by genetically modified crops continues. In March, the Netherlands proposed that, after common authorisation at EU-level, each Member State should have the possibility to forbid the cultivation of GM- varieties on member state level. It is expected that there will be again attempts to ask the Commission to come up with an adequate initiative.

At first sight the proposals look attractive. So attractive that even the GM- sceptical Austrian government, as well as ten other member states, have supported the proposal and added that member states should have the right to indefinitely ban GM crops from being grown on all or part of their territory if they so wish, not only for reasons of nature conservation and biodiversity, as is the case at the moment, but also for socio-economic reasons.

However, the consequences of "renationalising" these decisions could be severe. It is not by chance that the proposal was brought forward by the GM-friendly Netherlands. In exchange for this new possibility, they expect approvals from all Member States in the Council when it comes to the authorisation of new varieties. So the deal would be quick and "uncomplicated" approval of new GM-varieties at EU-level, but Member Stets would be allowed to ban specific varieties afterwards at home.

This would mean that even more varieties of GMOs would be grown in Member States which are open towards GMOs. Contamination knows no borders so decisions by pro-GM member states like the Netherlands would affect agriculture throughout the EU, and possibly even declared GM free zones. It would also send a dangerous signal to the United States and internationally.

For us in Wales it is more serious. As Wales is not a member state, the Assembly does not have the power to make Wales GM free, officially and indefinitely, as we would wish it to do. Only last week, the Irish Government agreed to declare the Republic of Ireland a GM-Free Zone, free from the cultivation of all GM plants. They will also introduce a voluntary GM-free label for food, which will give them a competitive advantage commercially.

We can be certain however, that the UK government, who will be voting on our behalf, will be in favour of growing GM crops, whatever the impact on Welsh agriculture. The UK have consistently supported approving more GMOs in the council meetings and if the deal works out, even more GM-varieties could be grown in the UK.

It is no surprise, either, that the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, has supported the Dutch proposal.

The European Environment ministers meeting in December 2008 called for more assessment of the long term affects of GMOs on the environment and health, independent scientific research and access to the secret information held by the biotech companies, research on the environmental impact of herbicides used on GM crops, and the overall socio-economic impact of growing GMOs.

Until we have this information, governments should not even be considering giving the go ahead to what is still a huge experiment with our health, our environment and our agricultural industry.

Diwedd/Ends