05/02/2024 (Agence Europe) – On Monday 5 February, the Commission for Natural Resources (NAT) of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) adopted a critical draft Opinion (https://aeur.eu/f/apu ) by Erik Konczer (PES, Hungarian) on the proposal to regulate new genomic techniques (NGTs) before the vote in the European Parliament (see EUROPE 13335/10). Local and regional representatives point out that NGT regulations could increase farmers’ dependency on large seed companies, thereby reducing the resilience of the EU food system. What’s more, they could undermine the EU targets to reach 25% of organic farming by 2030. Finally, the CoR maintains that the proposals considerably reduce the freedom of choice of farmers, consumers and regions. The CoR is calling for the rules to be amended to include traceability and labelling of NGTs. (LC)