BRUSSELS — The European Commission began a new push Tuesday to allow farmers in Europe to grow more biotech crops, clearing a genetically modified potato for cultivation despite persistent public opposition to the technology.

In the first such step in more than a decade, the commission approved the Amflora potato produced by the German company BASF for cultivation inside the 27-country European Union. John Dalli, the bloc's health commissioner, said the potatoes could be planted in Europe, with some conditions, as soon as next month.

Some scientists have linked the marker gene to antibiotic resistance in humans, raising concerns that the ill and the elderly, especially, could become more vulnerable to disease.