On Monday 30 June, the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU planned to hold a negotiation meeting with the European Parliament on the proposal to regulate the use of new genomic techniques (NGT). But MEP Jessica Polfjärd (EPP, Swedish), the Parliament’s rapporteur, called on Friday 27 June for the meeting to be cancelled, due to persistent differences between the two institutions on this sensitive issue. The EU Council accepted this request (see EUROPE 13635/20).
The issue will therefore be taken up by the Danish Presidency, which takes office on 1 July.
Commenting on the postponement on Friday, Christophe Clergeau MEP (S&D, French) said: “I share the feeling that no agreement was possible on Monday on the text relating to ‘new GMOs’. There are too many points separating us from the EU Council, and neither the EU Council nor the Commission have shown any willingness to compromise with Parliament to date. That said, a political discussion will have to take place soon to bring positions closer together. The Parliament will not compromise on transparency for consumers or on the protection of European farmers”.
Since the first trilogue on 22 April, fifteen technical meetings and two meetings of the chairmen of the political groups in the European Parliament’s Environment Committee have taken place, without any significant progress being made.
The most contentious issues concern: - equivalence criteria between category 1 NGTs and plants grown using so-called conventional techniques; - traceability and labelling; - the patentability of these new plants derived from NGTs (which Parliament opposes); - sustainability criteria (Parliament wants category 1 NGTs to contribute explicitly to sustainability objectives).
Last March, Poland obtained a negotiating mandate from the EU Council that included the possibility of patenting plants derived from NGTs, including category 1 plants - considered equivalent to conventionally bred varieties. For its part, Parliament is defending a number of conditions, including the compulsory labelling of NGT plants throughout the supply chain.
On Friday, at the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Member States to the EU (Coreper), the Polish Presidency reportedly indicated that it understood that the European Parliament was not ready to take part in Monday’s meeting and wished to postpone it.
According to a European source, “for the past two months, the Polish Presidency has been actively trying to move negotiations forward and reconcile positions in order to make progress on this issue”. The Polish Presidency recognises that the Parliament needs more time and “is now coordinating the next steps with the incoming Danish Presidency, to whom it wishes every success in pursuing this dossier”, the source goes on to say.
During a debate at the Agriculture Council on Tuesday 24 June, Portugal warned against the kind of labelling championed by the Parliament, arguing that the cost would be too high and would run the risk of completely blocking the cultivation of these varieties - a position supported in particular by France. Denmark has announced that reaching a compromise on this issue will be one of the priorities of its Presidency in the second half of 2025. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)