Italian politicians, farmers and environmentalists hailed the hard line the European Parliament adopted over genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in organic food on Thursday.
The MEPs challenged a European Commission proposal to allow foods to be legally sold as 'organic', even if they have been accidentally contaminated by GMOs, as long as the GMO content is no more than 0.9%.
The MEPs approved an amendment to the proposal calling for the accidental-contamination threshold in organic foods to be reduced to 0.1% - a level which is considered 'technical zero' - on Thursday.
Ermete Realacci, a Daisy Party MP and the president of the Italian Lower House Environment Commission, praised the EP vote as a victory for "good sense".
Italy is home to Europe's biggest organic food market and its producer associations and government have been among the most active in lobbying against this move.
"The vote is a clear signal from the European Parliament to the European Commission and to the Council of the European Union that organic food cannot have any trace of GMOs," said Andrea Ferrante, the president of the Italian Organic Agriculture Association.
"It is a question of respecting the public's right to eat uncontaminated food and the producers' right not to be contaminated".
Federica Ferrario of the Italian section of Greenpeace said the EP's effective rejection of the proposal was a "clear indication that the right to GMO-free food cannot be disputed".
European Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel is standing by the proposal to introduce a 0.9% threshold.
She argues that the costs of ensuring a lower level of GMO content would be too high for organic farmers.
The 0.9% threshold would be the same as that currently applied to conventional foods - any products whose GMO-content is higher than 0.9% must be clearly marked.
On Thursday Italian Green Party MEP Monica Frassoni said that rather than taking the organic food accidental-contamination threshold up to 0.9%, the conventional food threshold should be brought down to 0.1%.
Frassoni was echoing the "zero GMO tolerance" position expounded recently by Italian Agriculture Minister Paolo De Castro.
The EP refused to vote on a final resolution Thursday though and sent Fischer Boel's proposal back to its Agriculture Commission.
This is a bid to buy time to convince the European Commission to grant the Parliament the right of co-decision on this legislation.
At the moment the measure is classed as an agricultural produce proposal, an area where the EP only has the right to be consulted.
So if the Parliament had voted on a final resolution, the Commission would then have been free to ignore its opinions.
The EP, on the other hand, wants the measure to be classified as a single-market proposal, an area where its has stronger co-decisional powers.
"Let's hope the EP's decision is carried through to all the different levels of the EU and that this attempt to give organic food a 0.9% contamination level like all other food products is defeated once and for all," said Realacci.
Italy, where organic and 'traditional' produce are growing money-spinners, has been at the forefront of efforts to fight the introduction of GM crops and ease European restrictions on GM food.
In 2005, the Italian parliament approved a law aimed at preventing GM contamination of conventional and organic produce.
The law bans the cultivation of GM crops in open fields, permitting only restricted and protected testing of such organisms.
GM seeds must be kept strictly separated from conventional seeds and farmers whose crops are accidentally contaminated can claim compensation.
The law also gives regional governments the right to decide whether GM crops are allowed at a local level. Nearly all of the country's 20 regions have implemented legislation against GM crops.
