Brussels, 06/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - Eight environmental, agricultural and food safety organisations have called publicly on the European Commission to ensure that products from new genetic modification techniques of plants or animals do not escape the risk assessment procedure and labelling rules required by EU law.
Their message was contained in an open letter to European Health and Food Safety Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis on Friday 6 February. A proposal on how to respond to new genetic engineering techniques is expected from the Commission in the next few months.
At issue principally are oligonucleotides techniques, nucleases and direct modification of gene expression (epigenetics). The NGOs accuse the biotech industry and developers of the new techniques of lobbying the European Commission to exempt new genetic engineering techniques from GM rules. Consequently, the signatories call on the Commission to reject these calls.
“Most of these techniques are so new that there is not sufficient information to properly assess the risks. Some also allow more radical changes to plant genomes than genetic engineering methods currently used in commercialised products”, the letter says. The signatories point out that all non-traditional processes that change the structure of DNA using genetic engineering technologies or interfere with gene regulation fall within the scope of European GM regulations.
The letter was signed by EcoNexus, European Beekeeping Coordination, Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), Friends of the Earth Europe, GeneWatch UK, Greenpeace, Test Biotech. (AN)