The EU Council of Ministers adopted without debate on Friday 8 November a decision requesting that the European Commission submit, by 30 April 2021 at the latest, a study in the light of the judgment of the Court of Justice (Case C-528/16) concerning the status of new genomic techniques in EU law (see EUROPE 12271/12).
“The EU Council invites the Commission to submit a proposal, if appropriate, to take into account the results of the study or to inform it of any other measures necessary for following up on the study”, states the Council’s decision.
The Court of Justice of the EU, in July 2018 judgment, ruled that plants obtained by new methods of mutagenesis are GMOs. This is where EU legislation needs to be clarified.
In a declaration, six Member States (Cyprus, Hungary, Latvia, Luxembourg, Poland and Slovenia) stress that “any technique that modifies genetic material for agricultural purposes in a way that does not occur naturally requires special attention” and reaffirm the need to protect the environment and human health by respecting the precautionary principle.
The Finnish Presidency of the EU Council has scheduled a discussion of the ‘Agriculture’ Council on new plant breeding techniques at its meetings on 18 November and 16 and 17 December.
The Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis, said last June that he was in favour of “new legislation” on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) resulting from certain mutagenic techniques. However, it is up to the next Commission to decide on the need to present a new proposal.
Several European Ministers of Agriculture have asked the Commission to clarify the provisions of the GMO Directive (2001/18/EC) to take into account plants resulting from new breeding techniques via mutagenesis (see EUROPE 12255/12). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)