The deal undermines the vital “precautionary principle”, under which GMOs have been subject to comprehensive risk assessment, both to protect consumers and the environment. It also gives up Parliament’s position to ban patents on all New GMOs, which poses a threat to small and medium plant breeders.
This deal casts the negotiators from the EPP, ECR, ESN and PfE in a very bad light; they have abandoned the European Parliament’s key positions: no patents on NGTs, labelling and traceability for all NGTs to the detriment of farmers, small breeders, the food sector and, indeed, consumers.
Heike Moldenhauer, Secretary General of ENGA, comments:
“Under enormous pressure from Big Agri and Biotech, lawmakers have caved. Deregulating New GMOs and removing transparency — stripping consumers and the food industry of their right to know what is in their food — is not the path to sustainable agriculture and competitiveness of the EU’s food sector.
“We call on the European Parliament and the Council to reject this legislative proposal and to stand up for citizens, who want to know what is in their food, and for a food sector that wishes to continue producing food without GMOs.”
Next steps: final legislation still to be approved
The vote on the informal agreement must now be endorsed by both Parliament and Council in second reading. Parliament can table amendments. It will then enter into force 20 days after it has been published in the EU Official Journal and will apply two years later.
Notes to editors
- ENGA background paper on NGT traceability, NGT labelling and NGT detection methods
- Legal opinion on deregulation of NGTs