GMO deregulation delayed – Where are we at, where might we be going?

The European Commission’s legislative proposal for the deregulation of new GMOs – or new genomic techniques as they are also known – is to be delayed from June 7th 2023 until at least the latter half of that month. Mathieu Willard contextualises recent events surrounding the controversial proposal with an overview of the current GMO regulatory framework and the possible policy options hinted at in an impact assessment leaked by AGRA FACTS.

By Mathieu Willard 

In September 2021, the EU Commission published an inception impact assessment, effectively starting the process of deregulating GMOs. The incoming proposal aims to exempt plants derived from certain more recently developed genome modifying techniques from the current GMO legislation. You might know those techniques as ″targeted mutagenesis″, ″cisgenesis″ and ″CRISPR″, or, ″new genomic techniques″ (NGTs) as they’ve been collectively branded by the Commission.

Proposal delayed amid mounting pressure on the Commission

On March 31st, DG SANTE confirmed that the Commission’s proposal on GMO deregulation, as well as the proposal on seed marketing, will be postponed. Originally scheduled for June 7th, it will not be presented before the second half of June or later in July.

As reported by AGRA FACTS [N°28-23], the Regulatory Scrutiny Board, whose role is to ensure the quality of the Commission’s impact assessments, sent the proposal and accompanying Impact Assessment back to the drafting stage. Reasons mentioned are insufficient assessment of the impact on consumer trust, the organic sector, environment and health.

The pressure is increasing on the Commission as, on March 16th, several environment ministers (Germany, Hungary, Luxemburg, Slovenia, Slovakia and Cyprus) stated their support for the position of the Austrian environment minister to maintain the application of scientific risk assessment and mandatory labelling for NGTs. Recently, the German agricultural minister also came out against deregulation of GMOs.

In a previously leaked Farm to Fork document from DG AGRI entitled an ″overview of the politically sensitive topics″, the Commission already labelled NGTs as highly sensitive and pointed at general public rejection of the plan. Considering the increasingly politicised nature of the file, it is anticipated that the proposal could be delayed further, until the next Commission’s administration.

Figure 1: leaked Farm to Fork document from DG AGRI entitled an ″overview of the politically sensitive topics″

It is important to note that the seed marketing proposal has been delayed as well. This is one more indication that the two proposals are seen as a package. Indeed, one policy option for the upcoming seed marketing revision is the inclusion of sustainability criteria to be met for registration in the EU catalogue. It is foreseen that the criteria will be made to fit GMOs’ characteristics.

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