The European Union has been internationally influential in providing models for regulation of genetic engineering in agriculture, in ways quite distinct from regulation of genetic engineering in other sectors such as pharmaceuticals and industry. Global contentions about agriculture are both generated by and directed towards the EU. Controversies between the EU and other nations, and within the EU, have been intense, involving trade disputes, social movements aimed at destruction of GMO fields, and juridical tensions around applicable law in Member States. Mass politics and public opinion responding to media influences on the one hand and social movements of variable intensity and tactics on the other have shaped a disparate pattern of GMOs on the ground in Europe. Likewise, voting of nation states in formal institutions below and including the European Commission exhibit significant divergnce of positions. Solutions to these rifts have included proposals for 'nationalization' of policy that to disaggregate regulation below the EU level, and conciliatory efforts at coexistence in the fields. The search for new institutional mechanisms to resolve conflicts is exemplified by the French “Haut Conseil des biotechnologies.” One approach that sets Europe apart internationally is regulatory efforts to reconcile the interests of farmers and freedom of consumers via the subsidiarity principle allowing coexistence between GM and non-GM crops, recognizing in practice the heterogeneity in agricultural practices, landscapes, and legal environments among the EU Member States. These efforts run counter to the centrifugal tendencies that challenge Europe’s status as a recognized unitary bloc for international trade.