Final negotiations start on GMO deregulation

On 6 May, final nego­ti­a­tions will begin on the dereg­u­la­tion of plants engi­neered with new genet­ic mod­i­fi­ca­tion (GM) tech­niques, such as CRISPR/Cas. Dur­ing so-called tri­logue talks, the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment, Coun­cil of Min­is­ters and Euro­pean Com­mis­sion will finalise an agreed ver­sion of the pro­posed Reg­u­la­tion on plants obtained through “new genom­ic tech­niques” (NGT).

The new leg­is­la­tion aims to cre­ate a sep­a­rate legal regime for plants engi­neered with new GM tech­niques like CRISPR/Cas. The Com­mis­sion wants to abol­ish exist­ing require­ments for GMO risk assess­ment, con­sumer labelling and trace­abil­i­ty for most of these GM plants. Tri­logue nego­ti­a­tions can now begin, as both the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment and the Coun­cil of Min­is­ters have estab­lished their respec­tive posi­tions.

Jes­si­ca Polfjärd (EPP, Swe­den) will rep­re­sent the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment in the nego­ti­a­tions. The pre­vi­ous Par­lia­ment vot­ed on its amend­ments on 7 Feb­ru­ary 2024 and con­clud­ed its first read­ing on 24 April 2024. On 8 April 2025, almost a year lat­er, the Parliament’s Envi­ron­ment Com­mit­tee vot­ed to man­date Polfjärd to “enter into interin­sti­tu­tion­al nego­ti­a­tions.” The day before, NGOs and busi­ness organ­i­sa­tions had staged a GMO protest in front of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment in Brus­sels.

The Pol­ish EU Pres­i­den­cy, led by Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Czes­law Siekier­s­ki, will nego­ti­ate on behalf of the Coun­cil of Min­is­ters. On 14 March 2025, deputy ambas­sadors to the EU reached a frag­ile agree­ment, in which a nar­row major­i­ty of 19 EU coun­tries sup­port­ed a Pol­ish com­pro­mise pro­pos­al. Six coun­tries opposed the text (Aus­tria, Croa­t­ia, Hun­gary, Roma­nia, Slo­va­kia and Slove­nia), while Ger­many and Bul­gar­ia abstained.

The main stick­ing points are like­ly to be con­sumer labelling and trace­abil­i­ty of NGT prod­ucts and a ban on patents, both vot­ed by the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment but not backed by the Com­mis­sion and the Coun­cil. Czechia, Den­mark, Fin­land, the Nether­lands and Swe­den have pub­licly stat­ed their oppo­si­tion to con­sumer labelling. This is despite the fact that most con­sumers — includ­ing those who sup­port GM tech­nol­o­gy — want GM prod­ucts to be clear­ly labelled, and con­sumer asso­ci­a­tions have con­sis­tent­ly called for such labelling (for exam­ple in France and Ger­many). Den­mark will take over the rotat­ing EU Pres­i­den­cy from July 2025.

Regard­ing patents, the Pol­ish EU Pres­i­den­cy said the NGT leg­is­la­tion was not the right place to deal with this issue. How­ev­er, it is unlike­ly that any restric­tions on patents will be intro­duced at a lat­er stage, giv­en the Commission’s reluc­tance to engage on the mat­ter. Oppo­nents of GMO dereg­u­la­tion, includ­ing Save Our Seeds, have warned that the pro­posed law could lead to a surge in patent­ed seeds (link joint state­ment). This could strength­en the grip that a hand­ful of seed com­pa­nies have on farm­ers and small breed­ers through patents. Indus­try spon­sored licenc­ing plat­forms are insuf­fi­cient to pre­vent these neg­a­tive impacts.  

Once a tri­logue deal has been reached, both the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment and the Coun­cil must approve the final text through a vote.

Save Our Seeds is call­ing on the Mem­bers of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment to insist on prod­uct labelling and trace­abil­i­ty, ensur­ing busi­ness­es and con­sumers can avoid GM food and GMOs can be recalled in case some­thing goes wrong. Save Our Seeds also asks them to pre­vent seed patents.

Pho­to © Friends of the Earth Europe — GMO protest on 7 April 2025 in Brus­sels