GM vote put off

IRELAND was one of just six countries that supported this week’s European Commission proposal to allow the import and sale of genetically modified sweet corn.

But the proposal did not go to a vote, which would have tested the EU's de facto ban on genetically modified products. Instead, EU members will return to this politically divisive issue in December.

Only Britain, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Spain supported the proposal to put tins of GM sweet corn on European supermarket shelves.