Swiss GMO moratorium to be extended by two years

The Swiss Senate’s Committee for Science, Education and Culture has acted on a parliamentary initiative from the House of Representatives to this effect.

At the beginning of September, the government announced that it would be drafting a special law on the regulation of new plant breeding techniques, which will be put out to consultation by the end of the year. It intends to present the bill to parliament in the first quarter of 2026.

In 2022, parliament had asked the government to submit, by the end of the first half of 2024 at the latest, a draft act aimed at introducing a risk-based approval system for new breeding methods like gene editing (CRISPR).

Given the slower than expected progress and the legal vacuum that would be created by the expiry of the moratorium, the Senate committee considers it appropriate to ask the House of Representatives″ committee to draw up a bill extending the moratorium by two years, the parliamentary services said on Tuesday.

A popular initiative calling for genetic engineering to be governed by strict rules was launched at the beginning of September. The initiators are particularly opposed to relaxing the rules for plants modified using new genomic techniques. They have until March 3, 2026 to collect the necessary signatures to force a nationwide vote.