The renewal of existing authorizations for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and the approval of new products is a highly controversial issue among the European Union (EU) member states. With the recent changes in EU rules, the member states are allowed to restrict or prohibit the cultivation of GMOs, which provides ex post a legal basis to the unilateral cultivations bans instituted by some member states in the past. Since until very recently the instituting of a nation-wide cultivation ban was a legally difficult decision to take, GMO-skeptical regional entities in some member states have joined the European Network of GMO-free Regions. Germany is a case in point where 11 of the 16 States have joined the European Network of GMO-free Regions founded in 2004. With the new possibility of the federal government to legally institute a ban on the cultivation of GMOs an interesting dynamic is likely to arise. Which political arena – that is, the States or the federal government – will take the lead in the regulation of GMOs? Will the different approaches between the federal government and the States persist? How well does party ideology explain the GMO-related multi-level politics in Germany? These are the three questions that guide this empirical study. The findings show that the state governments that consists of the Social Democrats and the Green Party push for the federal government to regulate the cultivation of GMOs, while the opposite holds true for states where these two parties are not represented in government.
