The European Commission is expected to approve a new strain of genetically modified maize after member states were today unable to reach a decision for or against the move.

The issue was discussed during a tense meeting of European affairs ministers in Brussels today, at which 19 member states voted ‘No’ to the authorisation request. Five member states voted ‘Yes’ and four abstained.

However, there was no ‘qualified majority’ of weighted member state votes, which take into account a country’s size, for or against the proposal. Germany, which abstained, has by far the largest number of qualified votes. Under the EU’s comitology rules, this will likely force the Commission to authorise the GM crop, DuPont Pioneer 1507.

There was increasing frustration in the room, with several countries, including Hungary and Luxembourg, saying that Germany’s abstention was akin to a ‘Yes’ vote.

Tonio Borg, the European commissioner for health, asked how he could explain to European citizens that the EU is about to authorise a genetically modified crop despite the opposition of the European Parliament and 19 of the 28 EU member states. Thierry Repentin, France’s EU affairs minister, agreed, saying this will damage the EU’s credibility ahead of the European elections in May.

Speaking after the meeting, Borg said that the Commission is now obliged to approve the authorisation because it cannot say no to its own proposal for authorisation, which was put forward 13 years ago.

A ruling by the European Court of Justice in September said that the EU had delayed the application for too long, forcing the Commission to submit the request to the Council of Ministers. The ministers had three months to approve or reject the authorisation. That deadline will run out tomorrow (12 February).

Since 2010, the Commission has held back on referring to the Council any new applications for authorisations because member states remain bitterly divided over GM authorisations. A blocking minority of countries has refused to approve GM authorisations, to the irritation of pro-GM countries.

The Commission has tried to resolve the impasse by putting forward a proposal that would allow member states to enact national bans on GM crops, but this has so far not been acceptable to member states. The Greek presidency said today that it will host another discussion on this national ban proposal at the meeting of environment ministers in March.

The UK, Spain, Sweden, Finland and Estonia voted in favour of the authorisation today. Germany, Belgium, Portugal and the Czech Republic abstained.

After the discussion, Evangelos Venizelos, Greece’s foreign minister, said that each country had only expressed their “voting intention” and no actual vote had taken place. He said that a vote would have obliged the Commission to approve the law, but because no vote had taken place the Commission could withdraw the proposal.

However, Borg said that the authorisation request can only be withdrawn if new scientific evidence comes to light saying the maize is unsafe. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has given the green light to the crop six times, finding it safe. ‘We cannot have EFSA a-la-carte,” Borg said after the meeting. “When EFSA says a [GM crop] is safe, I cannot ignore that for political considerations,”

Anti-GM campaigners said that the Commission should withdraw the proposal. “Coming on top of last month’s vote by the European Parliament to oppose the authorisation and consistent public opposition to GMs, this underlines that there is no democratic mandate for authorising this GM maize variety,” said Belgian Green MEP Bart Staes. “Forcing through the authorisation against this background would be an affront to the democratic process and we are calling on the Commission to recognise this and withdraw its proposal.”