EU unable to approve new gene-editing plans in current mandate

By Sofia Sanchez Manzanaro | Euractiv

The approval of much-anticipated legislation relaxing the EU’s strict rules on New Genomic Techniques (NGTs), will have to wait until the next legislative mandate, Belgian Agriculture Minister David Clarinval confirmed in the margins of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council (AGRIFISH) on last Tuesday’s (26 March). 

″We do not have enough time left to finalise negotiations with the European Parliament,″ said Clarinval in a press conference after the AGRIFISH meeting.

He stressed, however, that the Presidency would continue to work towards reaching a common position among EU countries during the remainder of its mandate.

These advanced scientific methods, frequently hailed as a sustainability breakthrough, enable targeted and fast changes to the genome of crops, with the potential to make them more resistant to extreme weather and pests, along with other uses.

But negotiations on the NGTs regulation, unveiled by the European Commission in July 2023, have been stuck at Council since December.

At the time, the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council failed to broker an agreement among member states, as concerns over traceability, labelling and patents of gene-edited food persisted. 

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