In a scientific report published on Thursday, 11 July, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) expressed the opinion that certain types of genetically modified plants derived from new genomic techniques (NGT) do not present any more risks than conventional plants.
Immediately after its publication, this opinion was condemned by Greenpeace, which reproached the EU’s food safety body for contradicting several studies by European national agencies—including the opinion published on 22 January 2024 by the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES). Greenpeace’s Eva Corral reiterated that ANSES had warned “about the potential risks of new GMOs for human health and the environment”.
The EFSA has not taken the opinions of the national environment agencies of Austria (UBA) and Germany (BfN) into account either. According to both of these agencies, “90–94% of new GMO applications would [...] be fully deregulated”, since they would fall into category 1 of the European Commission’s proposal for new European legislation—a category that is normally reserved for plants considered to be conventional. The initial proposal reserved the second category for plants that had to comply with strict rules (such as those applied to GMOs).
For its part, the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU also wants to reopen the debate on the European Commission’s proposal (see EUROPE 13451/7), arguing that the criteria proposed by the European Commission “might not be sufficient for establishing similarity” between NGT 1 [plants] and plants grown using traditional methods. In addition, the Hungarians are calling for greater transparency with regard to NGT 1 labelling. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)