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Euronews
14-03-2025
- Business
- Euronews
Governments agree to ease regulation of new-generation GMOs
The EU has moved a step closer to lifting controls on some genetically modified crops after diplomats in Brussels gave the green light on Friday for final talks with the European Parliament, which has already backed a proposal to split them into two categories. Laboratory techniques developed since the EU put in place its current GMO regulations two decades ago mean new properties can now be conferred by precisely editing a plant's genome, rather than inserting whole genes from another species. Under the incoming rules, the products of new genomic techniques like the Nobel Prize-winning CRISPR-Cas9 'genetic scissors' will be placed in a lower 'category 1' and exempted from strict risk assessment and labelling requirements. They would also be removed from an opt-out that has allowed most EU governments to ban – often with broad public support – the commercial cultivation of all GM crops in their countries. Governments have agreed that products of the more modern genetic engineering techniques should not have to be marked as such on supermarket shelves, although seeds would still have to be labelled to allow organic farmers to avoid them. Backers of GM crops, notably powerful agricultural technology and chemicals companies and the intensive farming lobby, argue that such targeted mutations could occur spontaneously or through conventional breeding, so there is no need for any special treatment. Euroseeds, a trade association whose members include European agro-tech giants like Bayer, Syngenta and Cortiva, welcomed the EU Council's agreement and called on MEPs and governments to agree an 'innovation friendly' legal text in upcoming final talks. 'This means treating conventional-like NGT plants and products similar to conventional breeding without discriminatory labelling or traceability requirements,' secretary general Garlich von Essen said. But opponents of the deregulatory move argue that even small tweaks to a plant's genetic code could create unpredictable risks that would be all but impossible to contain once the new breed is in the wild. Mute Schimpf, who leads food campaigning at Friends of the Earth Europe said the intergovernmental deal marked 'a dark day for consumers, farmers and the environment'. 'EU governments have voted on the side of a handful of big corporations' profits, instead of protecting farmers and consumers' right to transparency and safety,' Schimpf said. The German GMO watchdog Testbiotech pointed out that as well as waiving risk assessment and traceability, governments in the EU Council had also agreed to allow the patenting of all GM plants, even those derived from most wild species. 'New developments such as the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and new possibilities for more risky changes of plant characteristics are not taken into account,' the NGO added. The new regulation will now be discussed behind closed doors by MEPs, government delegates and the European Commission. A likely sticking point is the parliament's call, in a negotiating mandate adopted a year ago, for a total ban on patenting of new-generation GMOs in order to avoid large farms creating monopolies. Euronews has opened an office in Warsaw and officially celebrated with an event attended by leading figures from politics, media and civil society. Guests included Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Wałęsa, Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak, and opposition leader Mateusz Morawiecki. The president of Euronews, Pedro Vargas, defended the network's presence in Warsaw. "In a politically divided country, like so many others in Europe today, we will fight every day for neutral, objective and impartial journalism," he said in a speech. "Euronews will be an uncensored place where all non-violent opinions have a place. You can count on us to be nothing but strong defenders of Freedom." Euronews wanted to know how those present appreciated the opening of Euronews Poland. "Of course this launch is important because it enriches our news market and freedom of expression and the opportunity to know more from different points of view is the most important thing for freedom," said the former Polish Ambassador to Finland, Jarosław Suchoples. According to former Polish Ambassador to Germany Andrzej Byrt, "Euronews is well known in Poland, at least to all those who are interested in international relations. With its competence and professionalism, after the first year, it will gain a very solid place among all international media." The new Euronews bureau is located in the city centre, in the immediate vicinity of the Palace of Culture and Science and the Warsaw Museum of Modern Art. Since it opened in November 2024, the bureau's team of journalists has been growing, with more expected to join them soon. The addition of Polish to the 19 European languages in which Euronews already broadcasts is a milestone for the channel, which currently reaches more than 400 million people across TV and connected devices.
Euronews
24-02-2025
- Business
- Euronews
European governments heading towards GMO deregulation
The EU has moved a step closer to lifting the stringent regulation of a new generation of genetically modified crops created using new genomic techniques (NGT), with a clear majority of governments signalling support for a Polish compromise proposal. The European Commission wants to create a new category of genetically modified crops created using modern gene editing techniques that would be subject to light-touch regulation, and treated as largely equivalent to conventional strains. Currently all GMOs are subject to strict safety testing and traceability requirements. Poland, chairing intergovernmental talks during its six-month EU Council presidency, held an informal vote on Friday (21 February) among national delegates in its third bid to broker a deal by tweaking provisions on the thorny issue of the patentability of new-generation GM crops. A handful of countries, mainly in the southeast of the EU, have consistently opposed the GMO liberalisation proposal. But the latest meeting appears to have tipped the balance in favour of creating the new category of gene-edited crops that would be exempt from the bulk of current regulations. Belgium, previously hamstrung by its fractious federal structure, has chosen to back the proposal under a newly installed right-wing government. 'We still have an issue with the patents but in a spirit of compromise, we decided to constructively support [the proposal],' a Belgian diplomatic source told Euronews. With the European Parliament having already agreed to back the core elements of the deregulation proposal – albeit while opposing patents on NGT crops – environmental groups are now concerned that liberalisation is looking increasingly likely. Friends of the Earth Europe urged agriculture ministers to reject the deregulation proposal, with food campaigner Mute Schimpf saying the EU executive was 'putting corporate interests ahead of nature and citizens' best interests'. 'Deregulating new GMOs won't benefit Europe - farmers, consumers, and the environment will pay the price just to please Bayer and its merry corporate friends,' Schimpf said, naming the German agro-chemical giant that merged with its US peer Monsanto in 2018. Qualified majority Berlin – two days before a general election, but with a long history of vacillating over key agro-tech issues – abstained, along with Bulgaria. But even without the EU's largest member state, there appears to be sufficient support to move forward. Another diplomatic source told Euronews that only Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia confirmed their continued opposition to the proposal, with Greece likely to join them pending government confirmation. The seven fall well short of a blocking minority. All other member state delegates supported the Polish compromise, although four – Italy among them – signalled they required the final nod from their governments. A Polish diplomat said the latest text had met with a 'good reaction' from governments, paving the way for a vote among national permanent representatives in Brussels next month. Agriculture ministers could then formally adopt their joint position on the proposal at one of two scheduled meetings, in late April or late May. After that the Council would enter back room talks with the European Parliament to hammer the legislation into its final form, a process that typically takes several months – but the fundamental deregulatory aim appears now to be backed by both legislative bodies. 'No scientific rationale' Environmental campaigners argue that patentable plants would lead to monopolistic practices by a small number of giant corporations, to the detriment of farmers. But they also vehemently oppose the NGT proposal on safety grounds. For a genetically engineered plant to be considered equivalent to a conventionally bred strain, it must contain no more that 20 point changes to its DNA – the famous 'double helix' containing the genetic code of life. 'However, there is no scientific rationale behind such a 'magic threshold', given there is no correlation between the number of mutations and the level of risk,' some 30 groups including Friends of the Earth Europe and GM Watch wrote to health commissioner Olivér Varhélyi last week. The proposed criteria 'completely ignore the fact that even small changes to the genetic material can lead to life forms with new characteristics that differ significantly from those resulting from conventional breeding or those found in natural populations', they wrote just a week after a similar warning from some 200 small farmers groups and NGOs. While first-generation GMOs involved transplanting a gene from one organism into another, new genomic techniques – including CRISPR/Cas9 'genetic scissors', which won its inventors the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020 – allow scientists to make precision edits to the genomes of plants or animals. The new technology allows scientists to rewrite genetic code at will, rather than simply shifting genes from one cell to another, and researchers are already exploring the potential for using generative AI to programme new properties into organisms – a prospect that has been met with both excitement and deep concern. Transgenic crops will remain subject to the existing GMO Directive, with stringent safety and traceability rules and an opt-out that has allowed all but a handful of EU governments to ban cultivation on their territories. Spain remains for now the only country in the union with significant production of GM crops.
