The Constitutional Council was seized of an application relating to the Law prohibiting the cultivation of varieties of genetically modified maize by 60 Senators and Members of the National Assembly.

The applicants notably asserted that the definitive and general prohibition imposed by the contested legislative provisions violated the precautionary principle enshrined in Article 5 of the Charter for the Environment.

The Constitutional Council didn’t follow the applicants’ argument and ruled that the Law prohibiting the cultivation of varieties of genetically modified maize was constitutional.

It considered that the contested provisions had the objective of prohibiting the cultivation of varieties of genetically modified maize without any temporal limit and that, accordingly, the objection alleging that the permanent prohibition of the cultivation of these varieties of maize violates the precautionary principle was misconstrued.