The EU agriculture ministers adopted, on Monday 20 November in Brussels, different positions on the proposal to regulate the development of new genomic techniques (NGTs).
The Belgian Minister, David Clarinval, chaired the EU ‘Agriculture’ Council in place of the Spaniard Luis Planas, due to the political context in Spain. Mr Planas has been reappointed Minister of Agriculture. He will therefore chair the last EU Council in December (11 and 12) under the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council.
David Clarinval presented a progress report on the EU Council’s work on NGTs and confirmed Madrid’s desire to bring the EU ministers to a common position (general approach) at the EU Council meeting on 11 and 12 December.
Under ‘any other business’, Croatia presented a critical position on the proposal and called for: - the freedom of EU countries to opt-out of NGT cultivation; - product labelling and consumer information; - maintaining NGT-free organic farming.
Several ministers supported the opt-out idea, including Austria, Lithuania, Malta, Cyprus, Hungary and Slovakia.
Slovenia and Poland strongly criticised the proposal, while Germany stressed the need to prioritise the quality of the results of the NGT negotiations, rather than the speed.
Several ministers are clearly in favour of the Commission’s proposal. Portugal said that organic production should not be put at a disadvantage (according to Portugal, the proposal should allow the organic sector to use NGTs, a position supported by France in particular).
Denmark (supported by Sweden on this point) wanted a streamlined authorisation system for NGTs (no labelling for category 1 NGTs similar to conventional plants) and, like France and the Czech Republic in particular, opposed the idea of authorising opt-out measures at Member State level.
Many delegations insisted on the issue of patents, to avoid a monopoly on these techniques.
European Parliament is trying to move forward quickly. The European Parliament hopes to be in a position to vote on its position in January 2024, with the aim of reaching a European Parliament/EU Council agreement before the European elections.
Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture will be examining the draft report by Veronika Vrecionová (ECR, Czech), which suggests abolishing the compulsory labelling of type 1 NGT plant seeds (those similar to conventional). It proposes replacing it with a reference to the European varietal catalogue, which lists all the seeds available in the EU. The rapporteur also suggests an article to prevent States from opposing the use of NGT plants on their territory. The Greens/EFA and The Left groups and Maria Noichl (S&D, German) are proposing amendments to reject the Commission’s proposal. Benoît Biteau (Greens/EFA) and Anja Hazekamp (The Left, Dutch) also propose deleting the “NGT type 1” category.
Rapporteur Jessica Polfjärd (EPP, Swedish), on behalf of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, which is responsible for the substance of this proposal, is hoping for a vote in the Committee on the Environment on 11 January 2024, so that the European Parliament mandate can be adopted at the second plenary session in January (see EUROPE 13287/20). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)