On Monday 20 November, the EU agriculture ministers will discuss the Council’s work on the proposal to facilitate the use of new genomic techniques.
That work is currently being carried out in the Council’s NGT working group. On 13 November, Sweden, Estonia, Denmark, Ireland, Portugal and the Netherlands transmitted a ‘common position’ on the compromise texts presented by the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council at the working group meeting on 30 and 31 October (see EUROPE 13287/20).
The position of these countries mainly concerns the equivalence criteria for NGT plants compared with conventional plants (Annex I) and specifies which criteria should be used for targeted mutagenesis or cisgenesis.
After proposing a series of compromises on the first eleven articles of the text (relating to the classification of these NGTs), on 30 and 31 October the Presidency submitted a second compromise document, this time relating to the remaining 23 articles, which specify the conditions for monitoring and coexistence with category-2 NGT plants.
The compromise on the table specifies that Member States will have to take appropriate measures to avoid the unintentional presence of category-2 NGT plants in products not subject to the GMO Directive (including organic products).
General Approach in December. After the Agriculture Council on 20 November, the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council will present the remaining revised compromise texts on the proposal at the working group meeting on 27 and 28 November. The aim would be to get the ministers to reach a general approach at the last Agriculture Council of the year, on 11 or 12 December. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)