On Tuesday 7 November, the European Parliament’s Environment Committee began work on finding a compromise on the proposal to regulate the use of new genomic techniques (NGT).
Replacing the rapporteur, Jessica Polfjärd (EPP, Swedish), Radan Kanev (EPP, Bulgarian) defended the use of NGTs and the amendments to be made to the initial proposal (see EUROPE 13281/10).
Christophe Clergeau (S&D, French) defended respect for citizens’ rights (traceability, consumer information, freedom of choice for producers). He recommended a risk assessment to “verify the possible environmental impact of the mass introduction of new varieties into natural areas”. According to Mr Clergeau, the distinction between category 1 and 2 is disputed on all sides, as is the suggestion of 20 nucleotides. He suggested using routine laboratory technologies to check that the NGT plant is equivalent to the conventional plant (in this case, the plant would be category 1, otherwise it would be category 2). Mr Clergeau expressed surprise at the rapporteur’s request to “stop labelling seeds”.
Jan Huitema (Renew Europe, Dutch) raised the issue of patentability and felt that companies should not be able to patent different plant characteristics (risk of monopoly).
Link to the draft report: https://aeur.eu/f/9eq (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)