In its final plenary session, the EU Parliament endorsed the EU Commission’s proposal to widely deregulate the new generation of genetically modified organisms (new GMOs, or so-called “New Genomic Techniques” or NGT). This decision positions the EU for even greater deregulation than in the United States of America.
The approved legislative proposal grants corporations the right to market new GMOs without any type of safety, monitoring and liability obligations, putting human health, nature and farmers’ rights at risk.
Mute Schimpf, food and farming campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe said:
“Today’s decision is a blow to food and environmental safety. It endorses a path that leaves nature, the food sector, and farmers vulnerable while bolstering profits and unchecked power for big corporations.”
The Commission’s proposal exempts new GMOs from safety checks for impacts on human health and the environment. It also removes corporations selling new GMOs from rigorous scrutiny and liability in case of harm. This shift weakens the fundamental precautionary principle underlying European policymaking and the EU’s approach to potentially risky products. Additionally, if the deregulation proposal goes through, the new generation of GMOs would no longer be subject to either the EU Environmental liability directive or national liability schemes applicable to GMOs. This significant gap in coverage has not been addressed by the European Commission, the EU Parliament or the Council.
Concretely, it means that agrochemical giants like Bayer, Corteva and BASF could minimise the costs associated with bringing new GM products to market but increase their profits from untested seed sales and patent fees, even if their use leads to environmental contamination or threatens farmers’ income by contaminating harvests, all without accountability for potential harm.
While the United States pressured the EU to emulate their deregulation approach to new GMOs, eliminating safety checks, the EU’s plan goes even further by failing to implement liability processes akin to those in the USA.
Next step: It is now up to the European agriculture ministers gathered in the EU Council [1] to ensure that lawmaking in the European Union does not only favour the interest of Big Agri. Friends of the Earth Europe calls on agriculture ministers to block the deregulation of new GMOs and keep them regulated as GMOs, thereby ensuring a balanced approach that prioritises both public and environmental protection.
Note:
- On 7 February 2024, at the last meeting of Member States diplomats during which they discuss the EU Council’s position on the file, Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Poland, Austria, Slovakia, Croatia, Romania, Hungary did not support the current Council text.
