A coalition of 162 civil society organisations, farmers and businesses wrote a letter to European Commission Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans, on Tuesday 30 March, urging him to oppose “any weakening of EU GMO regulations and to ensure the full application of the CJEU ruling of 25 July 2018, in line with the precautionary principle”.
They are concerned about new genomic techniques, in particular, the gene drive technique.
According to the Court of Justice (case C-528/16), GMOs derived from certain mutagenesis techniques having the same effects as transgenesis and which appeared after 2001 are covered by the obligations of the GMO Directive (2001/18/EC) (see EUROPE 12071/8, 12070/6).
The Commission is due to present its views on the future regulation of ‘new genomic techniques’ at the end of April, based on an internal EU Council study. In addition, the UK government is currently running a consultation on possible changes to its GMO regulations.
Refuting the biotech industry’s claims that these new techniques involve only small changes to DNA, the signatories point to scientific studies to the contrary. They point out the risks of genomic techniques for health and the environment, whether it is a question of genetically modifying animals or plants.
“Weakening the regulation of these powerful technologies would contradict the objectives of the EU Green Deal and the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategies”, according to Eric Gall, policy manager for IFOAM Organics Europe.
In addition to compliance with the CJEU ruling, the signatories expect the Commission to give a firm response to the UK consultation. They point out that a possible change in the regulation would represent a clear violation of the non-regression clause of the EU/UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
See the letter: https://bit.ly/3uaciIu (Original version in French by Amanita Niang)