A coalition of more than 50 organisations from 17 EU Member States is opposing the European Commission’s deregulation of GMOs from new genomic techniques. These NGOs submitted a petition to the European Commission on Tuesday 7 February, asking that the new generation of genetically modified organisms remain regulated and labelled in accordance with the rules in force under Directive 2001/18/EC on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms (see EUROPE 13000/6).
The term ‘new genomic techniques’ refers to new genetic engineering processes such as CRISPR/Cas, which are used to modify the genetic make-up of plants even more profoundly and rapidly than is possible with conventional breeding.
The petition, launched from April to November 2022 and published on Tuesday by Corporate Observatory Europe, has 420,000 signatures. It was forwarded to the Commission on the same day that the European Court of Justice issued a new judgment on the matter (see other news).
NGOs, which have repeatedly denounced the health and environmental risks of new genomic techniques, have once again taken up the cause, in the knowledge that the European Commission plans to submit a legislative proposal on 7 June, according to the provisional timetable, to facilitate the marketing of these new generation GMOs.
See the petition, now closed: https://aeur.eu/f/596 (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)