Germany

In 2007 and 2008, the German authorities approved of 'field-trials' with the GM potato Amflora by BASF even though the goal was/is not to do any research but simply to produce seed potatoes for the case that Amflora actually gets a cultivation approval in the EU. One of the conditions was that no potatoes would be left on the field afterwards. Already in autumn 2007, a number of potatoes were discovered on one of the fields after the harvest. Now, a season later, it is quite obvious that GM potatoes cannot be contained: As the newspaper taz reported the field is now planted with maize - and among that a number of potato plants can be found.
The new condition from the German authorities: spray the field again with herbicides once the maize is harvested. So instead of a field trial that left no potatoes on the field after harvests, we now end up with at least two additional applications of herbicides (and possibly more to come), wild boar feeding on left over potatoes in winter 2007, and a representative from BASF that simply states: "Of course there will be potatoes on the field in the next season."
Now this was a field trial on a few fields with a lot of public attention. How will things develop if Amflora were to be cultivated commericially?

An in-depth research into who is who in the German competent authorities for the assessment and approval of GM crops, should that many of those involved play a number of roles in different networks. Some of the scientists in the approval authorities and the national research institutes giving advices to the authorities are also member of lobby organisations and/or are involved with the biotech industry.

After years of arguments the German government finally decided on changes on a number of regulations for GM crops. What's hailed as an improvement in fact makes matters worse and some of the pressing issues have still not been tackled. What made it to the main TV news was that GM maize now should be planted 150 m away from conventional maize, or 300 m from organic maize. Or less if the GM farmer makes an agreement with his neighbours. It doesn't take much imagination to picture the pressure that can mount in a village if one farmer wants to grow GM maize... But it also means that their neighbours will have to label any kind of GM contamination, even below 0.9% because agreeing to a lesser safety distance clearly could technically been avoided.

German authorities stopped the sales of Monsanto's GM maize MON810 till Monsanto submits a new monitoring plan for environmental effects because of new scientific knowledge that MON810 has bigger adverse effects on the environment then expected.
However, because the decision was only taken shortly after the maize sowings, the cultivation of MON810 maize will probably not affected this year. Nevertheless, the decision is important for the further assessment of MON810 in the EU. (Notification in German and English)