The legislative process
The EU Commission presented its proposal for the deregulation of NGTs in July 2023, the European Parliament defined its position in February and again in April 2024, while in the AGRIFISH Council the Spanish and Belgian Presidencies have failed to find a common position. A trilogue, at the end of which there is new legislation, can only begin when all three institutions have defined their negotiating lines.
The Hungarian Presidency’s ‘non-paper’ for the Council working group
To structure work and discussions in the AGRIFISH working group the Hungarian Presidency has submitted a “non-paper on the main issues”, featuring issues important for the European food industry. It includes the questions whether the equivalence criteria of NGTs plants to conventional plants have a scientific basis and are appropriate, whether NGT1 plants need an environment risk assessment, whether the scope of the legislation should be limited to agricultural plants, whether NGT 1 food and feed along the chain should be labelled. It asks member states to find a solution for detection and identification of NGT plants and products, whether a sustainability check for NGT1 plants should be obligatory, whether export problems or trade barriers, respectively, can occur with those countries which don’t consider NGT1 plants equivalent to conventional plants and whether compliance with the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is guaranteed. (The EU has signed the Cartagena Protocol which is superior to EU law. The Protocol requires a case-by-case risk assessment for GMOs. This is, according to the EU Commission’s legislative proposal and the EU Parliament’s position, excluded for NGT1 plants).
The company letter to EU agriculture ministers
The letter to the EU agriculture ministers is an initiative led by the companies Alb-Gold, Alnatura, Andechser, dm, Frosta and Molkerei Berchtesgadener Land. It follows on from the successful first letter initiated by the same group. The first open letter was addressed to Manfred Weber, head of the European People’s Party, the largest group in the EU Parliament, as well as to all MEPs, asking them to support labelling and traceability of all NGTs, from seeds to feed and food. Unlike the lead committees, the Committee for Environment and the Committee for Agriculture, the Parliament’s plenary agreed to both demands!
Now it is a matter of getting a majority in favour of traceability and labelling in the AGRIFISH Council, i.e. to win a second trilogue institution - since the Commission only wants to label seeds from NGT1 plants but not feed and food.
The letter states: “In the interests of consumer protection and fair competition, we want to implement the obligation adopted by the EU Parliament for labelling and traceability of all NGTs in our companies. To do so we need detection methods for all products manufactured using New Genomic Techniques, including those in category 1. We need an EU-wide binding legal basis on which Member States must adopt detailed coexistence measures that permanently protect agriculture and the food industry from contamination with category 1 and 2 NGTs. This is the only way we can offer our customers products without GMOs. We are also in favour of the possibility of national bans on the cultivation of category 1 and 2 NGTs.”
The open letter is available in eight EU languages on the website of ENGA member VLOG and can be signed by feed and food companies and retailers until the 31st of August.
https://www.ohnegentechnik.org/en/for-businesses/businesses-for-freedom-of-choice-council-of-ministers