The European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture will vote, on 11 December, on its opinion prepared by Veronika Vrecionová (ECR, Czech) on the proposal for a framework for new genomic techniques (NGTs). The political groups on this committee have drawn up compromise amendments.
On the sensitive issue of patents, an amendment stipulates that plants obtained using NGTs “shall not be patentable”.
Furthermore, according to another compromise amendment, the decision on whether or not to ban the use of these new genomic techniques by the organic farming sector in Europe would be taken within the framework of the regulation on organic farming, and not within the framework of this text on new genomic techniques. Jessica Polfjärd (EPP, Swedish), rapporteur on behalf of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment on NGTs, believes that plants derived from so-called ‘category 1’ NGTs should be allowed to be used in organic farming, contrary to what the European Commission is proposing (see EUROPE 13281/10).
Other compromise amendments reached in the Committee on Agriculture: MEPs want to limit the verification of category 1 NGTs to Member State level only, and they are calling for greater transparency by requiring the traits of these NGT varieties to be indicated in the Community seed catalogue.
The European Parliament hopes to adopt its position on this dossier in plenary in January 2024, while the EU ‘Agriculture’ Council could reach a ‘general approach’ on the proposal on Monday 11 December.
Link to the compromise amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/9zd (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)