Genetically manipulated organisms in the EU: Subsidiarity and banning

On the side of the member states, there seems to be growing opposition against the Commissions openness towards the use genetically manipulated organisms (GMOs) in agriculture.

In a note directed to all member states, Austria, so far supported by

• Bulgaria
• Cyprus
• Hungary
• Ireland
• Greece
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Malta
• Slovenia

and referring to an earlier declaration made by the Netherlands, demands the clearly defined legal right for each member state to ban GMOs:

"The legally soundest solution we envisage is a set of minor amendments to relevant EU legislation, which should introduce the right of an individual Member State to restrict or prohibit indefinitely the cultivation of authorised GMOs on its territory. The amendments could be based on the subsidiarity principle (Article 5 TEC) and the principle of unanimity for decisions on land use (Article 175 TEC). Such an “opt-out” clause could be formulated in quite straightforward legal terms and could easily be integrated into the existing legislation.

In general, I don't have anything against this approach but I also don't have anything against GMO in agriculture.

I just don't understand why we have a Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that takes the biggest share in the EU budget and then we should decide not to have a CAP in a certain field...?!

If the member states want their right to subsidiarity in agricultural policy they should scrap the CAP (in fact, they should do it anyway)!