In his opinion on genetically modified plant varieties, delivered on Thursday 27 October, First Advocate General Maciej Szpunar considers that random mutagenesis applied in vitro should be excluded from the scope of EU law on the deliberate release of GMOs into the environment.
Such an exclusion does not exempt plant varieties derived from these techniques from control, according to the conclusions (Case C-688/21).
The Court was asked to rule on the interpretation of the Directive on the deliberate release of GMOs into the environment (Directive 2001/18/EC). It ruled that mutagenesis methods or techniques which have appeared or developed since the adoption of this text should not be excluded from its application.
In a dispute between the Confédération paysanne and the French Minister of Agriculture concerning the exclusion of certain mutagenesis techniques from the scope of the provisions of French law governing the cultivation, marketing and use of GMOs, the Council of State asked the Court to interpret Directive 2001/18 in the light of the judgment in the case involving Confédération paysanne and others, concerning the technique or method of genetic modification, random mutagenesis applied in vitro (judgment in Case C-528/16 - see EUROPE 12070/6).
The Advocate General considers that the 2001 Directive on the deliberate release of GMOs does not concern mutagenesis as such, but organisms obtained by this method. Furthermore, he considers that it is “not justified” to make a legal distinction between random in vivo and in vitro mutagenesis. As in vivo random mutagenesis falls outside the scope of GMO legislation, he also proposes to exclude the in vitro method from the scope of the 2001 Directive.
The Confédération paysanne criticised the findings: “The Advocate General is trying to open a loophole to circumvent the GMO regulation”. If these recommendations are followed, “a large number of GMOs” could be placed on the market “without any assessment, labelling or monitoring”. The Court’s judgment will be issued shortly.
More info: https://aeur.eu/f/3tu (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)