Pro and anti-GMO representatives once again gave their voices a voice on Monday 7 January in Brussels during an exchange of views between MEPs from two parliamentary committees - the Agriculture Committee and the Environment Committee of the European Parliament - on the judgement of the Court of Justice dated 25 July, which confirmed that organisms derived from certain mutagenic techniques are indeed GMOs and therefore fall within the scope of EU legislation on GMOs (see EUROPE 12070).
While, on the whole, everyone acknowledged that the judgement clarifies matters, an opposition emerged between two extremes. Swedish MEP Nils Torvalds (ALDE), for example, said that this "Court decision will prevent competitive agriculture in Europe", capable of "meeting the food needs not only of Europe, but of the planet, which will have 10 billion people by 2050".
Others, such as Martin Haüsling of Germany or Thomas Waitz of Austria, both from the Greens/EFA Group, considered the argument inaudible. "You're using foolish rhetoric from the industry. We need a sustainable agricultural model", he said. “This ruling does not prohibit technological engineering, it says that labelling, extensive testing and assessment of risky technologies are needed", said Mr Haüsling, who is a member of both parliamentary committees.
One thing is certain, the debate on GMOs and the future of biotechnology in Europe has been relaunched and will be under the next Commission.
"The ruling, everyone understands that. It is the implementation that is problematic", said the representative of the European Commission. She indicated that exchanges of information and views had taken place with Member States' experts on the challenges arising from the Court's judgement.
In her view, the most important implementation challenge is that, in particular, identical products could be obtained with different selection techniques, but also that, depending on the selection technique, it is possible that regulatory regimes may be different for products that are ultimately identical. "How can this be implemented with operators, how can supervisory authorities differentiate between products obtained by a particular technique? In itself, this is already a challenge", she said.
To help address it, the Commission has asked the EU Reference Laboratory for Food and Feed and the Laboratory for the Sampling of GMOs to find practical solutions. "We expect the results of these analyses by March 2019", she said.
At present, the Commission does not intend to prepare an assessment of GMO legislation or to prepare new legislative proposals during this legislature. However, in the medium and long term, the Council, Parliament and the Commission must ensure, on the one hand, a management and governance system that can keep pace with scientific developments and, on the other hand, standards for innovation, competitiveness and security.
The next Commission will have to develop a clear vision on the future of biotechnology in Europe. French MEP Éric Andrieu (S&D) expressed the wish that this future debate "be included on the agenda of our work". (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)