Biotech-Crop Cultivation Flexibility Backed by EU Lawmakers

A European Union plan to let individual member countries ban the cultivation of genetically modified crops won support from the bloc’s parliament, setting up a clash with governments that oppose the step.

The European Parliament endorsed a draft law that would give national governments an opt-out from rules making the EU a single market for goods. The aim is to accelerate approvals at EU level of applications to plant gene-modified seeds made by companies such as Monsanto Co.