There has been white smoke, papally
speaking, in a deal among the 27 EU member states on the
regulation on new genomic techniques.
EU ambassadors reached a political agreement this morning on
the European Commission's proposal and are now ready to
negotiate with the European Parliament, which had already agreed
on the negotiating mandate on 24 April 2024. The Polish
presidency leading the six-month EU Council promoted the
discussion this morning in Coreper, the committee of permanent
representatives to the EU, presenting a new compromise text that
has been discussed at a technical level among experts from the
27 capitals over the past two months.
The political mandate, an EU source explains, was "supported by
a sufficient number of member states" to reach the necessary
qualified majority, which is obtained when 15 out of 27
countries representing at least 65% of the EU population support
the proposal. According to several sources close to the dossier,
those who voted against the mandate were Slovenia, Croatia,
Hungary, Austria, Romania and Slovakia. Germany and Bulgaria
abstained.
The mandate of the EU Council confirms the distinction between
plants derived from new genomic techniques (NGT) of category 1
(those "considered equivalent to conventional plants") to be
exempted from the current rules on GMOs that will not be labeled
but whose seeds will have to be labeled; and plants of category
2 to be labeled and to which the rules on GMOs will apply. The
mandate confirms the exclusion of genomic techniques from
organic farming. Some changes are foreseen to the proposal of
the EU Commission, dating back to July 2023, including the
possibility for EU Member States to prohibit the cultivation of
NGT plants of category 2 on their territory, the possibility of
adopting measures to avoid their involuntary presence in other
products and to prevent cross-border contamination.
To strengthen transparency, the compromise text proposes to
make it mandatory for those requesting the registration of an
NGT 1 plant to declare the complete list of patents of which
they are the holder. All patent information will be included in
a database that, the governments recommend, will be updated
periodically. The states also request the creation of an expert
group on the effects of patents on NGT plants composed of
representatives of the capitals. The Polish presidency has also
strengthened the obligation for the European Commission to
present two impact studies on patenting practices, in particular
on the relationship with representatives of the agri-food chain.
If the first study were to reveal any negative developments in
the practices, the EU Executive would be obliged to present an
ad hoc legislative proposal on patents to address any critical
issues. A second study is expected four to six years after the
publication of the first. Finally, the Council's negotiating
mandate states that herbicide tolerance cannot be one of the
characteristics for category 1 plants "to ensure that such
plants remain subject to the authorisation, traceability and
monitoring requirements" that are guaranteed for category 2
plants.
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