EU Environment MEPs scrap safety checks, labelling and liability for new GMOs

1. EU Environment MEPs scrap safety checks, labelling and liability for new GMOs
2. MEP backing for GMO deregulation threatens rights of farmers
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1. EU Environment MEPs scrap safety checks, labelling and liability for new GMOs
Friends of the Earth Europe, 24 Jan 2024
https://friendsoftheearth.eu/press-release/environment-meps-scrap-safety-checks-labelling-liability-for-new-gmos/

Today, members of the Environment Committee (ENVI) of the European Parliament removed the new generation of genetically modified organisms (new GMOs, or so-called “New Genomic Techniques” or NGT) from any type of safety checks, labelling requirements and liability processes.

The vote’s outcome shows EU conservative and most liberal parliamentarians’ disregard for the right of consumers and farmers to know what they eat and grow in their fields. It also raises the alarm about the undue influence of big agribusiness like Bayer, which spends 6 million euros lobbying per year, seeking to expand their control over the food sector.

Mute Schimpf, food campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe said:

"Today’s outcome is a slap in the face for farmers and consumers. The Environment Committee’s position carelessly ignores basic citizens’ rights and nature protection principles to bow to industry lobbies, but there is still time to act. 

"We urge all EU parliamentarians to put the final nail in the coffin of this absurd deregulation proposal in the plenary vote."

Next steps: In addition to the European Parliament’s plenary vote on the legislative proposal in February, Europe’s agriculture ministers need to agree and vote on their own position. So far, they have raised major concerns over possible field contamination and a flood of patents on seeds.
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2. MEP backing for GMO deregulation threatens rights of farmers
Greenpeace, 24 January 2024
https://www.greenpeace.org/eu-unit/issues/nature-food/46925/mep-backing-for-gmo-deregulation-threatens-rights-of-farmers/

The European Commission proposal on new GMOs, and amendments supported today by the European Parliament’s environment committee, risk violating the rights of farmers and consumers, according to new legal analysis (https://www.greenpeace.org/eu-unit/issues/nature-food/46914/draft-eu-law-on-new-gmos-threatens-legal-rights-of-farmers-faces-ecj-rejection/) by Greenpeace.

The proposed law does not provide sufficient protection against the contamination of crops with new GMOs, which are obtained through so-called new genomic techniques (NGTs). 

Greenpeace EU GMO campaigner Eva Corral said: “Decades of progress in the EU on farmers’ rights, and protecting people’s health and the environment, should not be scrapped for the sake of biotech industry profits. Safety measures do not hinder innovation, nor do current rules that apply to GMOs. EU law does not prohibit research and development: it aims to ensure that what is developed does not breach EU citizens’ rights to health and environmental protection.” 

Greenpeace’s legal analysis shows that, if adopted, the law could violate a broad body of EU constitutional law, including several articles of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, because rules on safety checks, labelling and traceability are removed or watered down. It could also violate the fundamental rights of farmers to property and the freedom to run a business, because it does not provide sufficient protection against the contamination of crops with new GMOs. 

New GMOs are currently covered by the existing EU legislation on GMOs, with all GMOs subject to safety checks, traceability and labelling. 

Following today’s environment committee vote, the European Parliament plenary is expected to vote on the proposed law in February. EU governments are also trying to secure an agreement on the Commission’s proposal, after a deal was rejected in December.

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