On Friday 19 December, the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU noted the existence of a qualified majority within the EU Council in favour of the agreement reached with the European Parliament on the regulation governing the use of new genomic techniques (see EUROPE 13766/8).
At the meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Member States to the EU (Coreper) on Friday, nine delegations indicated that they would either vote against or abstain. Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and Romania have specified that they will vote against the text on new genomic techniques (NGT), while Bulgaria, Germany and Belgium have announced their intention to abstain at the time of the vote.
“With this agreement we took a big step towards enhancing the competitiveness of Europe’s agri-food sector. This will give our farmers the new and safe tools to keep up with global competition while at the same time making our agriculture more sustainable and resilient to climate change”, said the Danish Presidency of the Council.
The European Commission has issued a statement on patents, as seen by Agence Europe, to reassure certain Member States. It undertakes to closely monitor the impact of the regulation on SMEs in the European seed sector, to ensure that the development of plants derived from NGTs, and in particular their patentability, does not lead to “negative effects” on the plant breeding market, such as the exclusion of SMEs. The Commission will oversee the drafting of a “code of conduct”, which should be ready as soon as possible, but no later than six months before the regulation comes into force. The Commission will evaluate the operation of licensing platforms and their use by the seed sector, to ensure the transparency of patents and facilitate access to licences for SMEs on fair and reasonable terms.
Patents for NGT plants have been authorised (the European Parliament was opposed to this), with safeguards to ensure that small and medium-sized seed companies in Europe are not jeopardised by the arrival of these NGT seeds. This includes possible licensing agreements and a code of conduct introduced by the Commission.
The text still has to be formally adopted by the EU Council and the European Parliament in early 2026. The vote in the European Parliament promises to be a close one.
See the compromise text: https://aeur.eu/f/k3r (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)