Germany sees no EU legal action on GMO ban

CISON DI VALMARINO, Italy, April 18 (Reuters) - Germany does not expect the European Commission to seek to stop its ban on cultivation and sale of genetically modified (GMO) maize, German Agriculture and Consumer Protection Minister said.

But it does expect a legal action from U.S. biotech company Monsanto (MON.N: Quote, Profile, Research) whose MON 810 maize will be affected by the ban which was announced this week, Ilse Aigner told reporters on the sidelines of the farm ministers meeting in northern Italy.

"I do not think that the EU Commission is going to start legal proceedings now...they hinted at the fact that they are not going to do so," Aigner said via an interpreter.

"But we are expecting legal proceedings from Monsanto," she said without giving more details.

Germany's decision contradicts the European Union rulings that the biotech grain is safe and the EU Commission, the bloc's executive arm, said on Tuesday it would examine the German move.

Monsanto has said it would consider legal options to enable GMO seeds to be planted for this year's harvest, if the ban was confirmed.

France, Austria, Hungary, Greece and Luxembourg have banned MON 810 maize despite its approval by the EU for commercial use throughout the bloc, and Aigner said the issue was being discussed with other EU countries.

Italy's Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia, an opponent of GMO crops, told reporters he welcomed Germany's decision.

Both ministers spoke on the margins of the first-ever meeting of farm ministers from the Group of Eight industrialised countries and major developing nations which runs from Saturday to Monday in northern Italy.