European Parliament chooses its position: for labelling and traceability of all New GMOs

News

In its plenary vote today on New GMOs, the European Parliament voted in favour of labelling and traceability requirements for all New GMOs, following amendments tabled by the Greens and S&D. Should the Parliament’s position become law business operators (breeders, farmers, food and feed processors, retailers) and consumers will continue to have the right to know what is in their value chains and their food.

Unfortunately, amendments for risk assessment, coexistence measures and the right of Member States to prohibit or restrict cultivation on their territory did not find a majority.

ENGA, on behalf of the Non-GMO food industry in Europe, welcomes the European Parliament’s stance to support business operators’ and citizens’ basic right to information: knowing what it is that they are producing, buying and eating. On the other hand, there is a lack of important measures to safeguard GMO-free production, in particular EU-wide legally binding coexistence rules to keep agriculture and food production free of GMO contamination.

The Europe Parliament’s vote is its negotiating position for the trilogue between the three law-making institutions: the European Parliament and European Commission and the Council. The trilogue has not started yet because member states have not found a common position. 

ENGA urges all parties to address the outstanding, unanswered problems on NGT regulation thoroughly: patenting, co-existence measures, the lack of scientific evidence for NGT1 classification and risk assessment.