GMO: CJEU confirms the Commission may restrict cultivation areas at the request of a Member State

The 2015 procedure allowing the Commission to restrict the area where the cultivation of a GMO is authorised, at the request of a Member State and with the tacit consent of the authorisation holder, is endorsed by the Court of Justice of the EU, in a judgment delivered on 05/02/2026.

It also "confirms the lawfulness of the prohibition on cultivating genetically modified maize (MON 810) introduced in Italy on the basis of that procedure". According to this judgment, "an Italian farmer planted MON 810 (from the undertaking Monsanto) even though such cultivation is prohibited in his Member State. The Italian authorities therefore ordered the farmer to destroy the plants in question and imposed on him fines totalling €500,000".

The farmer "brought actions before the Italian courts against the decisions taken against him. Those national courts referred several questions for a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice so that, inter alia, the Court could verify the validity of the provisions laying down that procedure".

In its judgment, the Court finds that the 2015 common rules giving…