In preparation for a meeting of experts from the EU Member States on Friday 14 February, the Polish Presidency of the EU Council has prepared a compromise proposal (dated 6 February) that is more flexible than the previous one on how to regulate the use of new genomic techniques (NGTs).
The text proposed, like the previous one (see EUROPE 13553/1), provides for the approval of most genetically engineered plants without requiring a mandatory risk assessment, and considers them to be equivalent to plants derived from conventional agriculture. However, contrary to the previous proposal by the Polish Presidency of the Council, the restrictions on patents for plants derived from NGTs have been withdrawn. The possibility for EU Member States to impose national cultivation bans has also been removed in this version of the regulation.
This would mean that companies would not have to give up their patents, but only provide information about them. The Polish Presidency of the Council is taking a step closer to the seed industry, which only wants to grant access to patented seeds in exchange for the payment of licence fees, according to NGOs such as Testbiotech.
The European Parliament, in its position amending the European Commission’s proposal, provided for a ban on patents on plants derived from NGTs.
Some NGOs are critical of the new Polish compromise proposal, arguing in particular that it would considerably exacerbate the problems of concentration in the seeds market. The new rules could enable patented NGT plants to reach the market more quickly. NGOs fear “a process of extreme concentration in which a few large companies would control access to the plant material needed by all breeders”.
The EU Council has still not adopted a common position on the proposal governing the use of NGTs, but the Polish Presidency of the Council is actively working on this (see EUROPE 13568/9).
Link to the latest Polish proposal on NGTs: https://aeur.eu/f/ffd (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)