Twenty European organisations representing the agri-food value chain sent a letter to the European Commission on Wednesday 10 May, to express their support for the proposal on new genomic techniques (NGT) expected at the end of June.
The European Commission had hoped to adopt the proposal on 7 June, but some believe the earliest date might not be until 21 June.
These organisations, such as MAIZ'EUROP', the European Association of Sugar Manufacturers (CEFS), Copa-Cogeca and Euroseed, are calling for a “favourable and proportionate” regulatory framework.
They support transparency and freedom of choice for farmers and growers through public registers that provide public information on all varieties obtained through NGTs, such as national variety lists and European Common Catalogues.
They believe that, in the case of NGT plant products that could have been produced by conventional means or occur naturally (conventional-like NGT plants), the Commission’s proposal should treat them in the same manner as their conventionally bred counterparts “to avoid regulatory discrimination of similar products”.
The Commission should not, according to these organisations, impose traceability and labelling obligations or coexistence measures. These European organisations insist that this is particularly important in the global context.
Link to the letter: https://aeur.eu/f/6tu (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)