Monsanto SAS and Others v Ministre de l'Agriculture et de la Peche.

The present case concerned the lawfulness of two provisional national measures which suspended, successively, the transfer and use of MON 810 maize seeds, which are GMOs, and subsequently prohibited the planting of seed varieties derived from the line of that maize. The Court ruled as follows: In circumstances such as those of the main proceedings, GMOs such as MON 810 maize, which were authorised under Directive 90/220 on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms and which were notified as existing products in accordance with Regulation 1829/2003 on genetically modified food and feed, and were subsequently the subject of a pending application for renewal of authorisation, may not have their use or sale provisionally suspended or prohibited, by a Member State, under article 23 of Directive 2001/18; such measures may, however, be adopted pursuant to article 34 of Regulation No 1829/2003. Article 34 of Regulation No 1829/2003 authorises a Member State to adopt emergency measures only in accordance with article 54 of Regulation 178/2002, compliance with which it is for the national court to ascertain. With a view to the adoption of emergency measures, article 34 of Regulation 1829/2003 requires Member States to establish, in addition to urgency, the existence of a situation which is likely to constitute a clear and serious risk to human health, animal health or the environment (Joined cases C-58/10 to C-68/10).