BRUSSELS  European Union governments delivered a blow Monday to the biotechnology industry, allowing Austria and Hungary to maintain national bans on growing genetically modified crops from Monsanto.

The vote, taken by European environment ministers, could irritate Washington, which has complained to the World Trade Organization about obstacles to planting bioengineered crops.

The vote was also a setback for the European Commission, the union’s executive arm. The commission has sought to ease the restrictions in Europe on gene-altered crops, in part to keep down the cost of animal feed.

Member countries were “firm” and the “commission should take a close reading of the result,” the French environment minister, Jean-Louis Borloo, said after the announcement in Brussels, according to Bloomberg News.