Foodlaw-Reading Dr David Jukes, The University of Reading, UK
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Food Law News - EU - 2023

Council Minutes, 11 December 2023

NEW GENOMIC TECHNIQUES (NGTs) - Council Discussions: Regulation on plants obtained by certain new genomic techniques and their food and feed products

The following is an extract from the text of the minutes of the meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council held on 10 and 11 December 2023:

The Council discussed the text of the General Approach as proposed by the Presidency. The Presidency, while noting the absence of sufficient support at that stage, recalled the importance of the file and informed delegations about its intention to continue to work with a view to gathering sufficient support on the text as soon as possible.

Statements by Greece and Austria to this item are set out in the Annex [Given below]

STATEMENT BY GREECE

“Category 1 New Genomic Techniques (NGT) plants should be treated as plants that have been produced by conventional breeding techniques. The biological material of plant breeding, which may also occur in nature, must be widely available for plant breeding. Patentability of Category 1 NGT plants poses the risk of increasing market concentration, the emergence of monopolies and therefore may affect the affordability and availability of food. Thus, Category 1 plants, their derived seed, their plant material, associated genetic material such as genes and gene sequences, and plant traits should be excluded from patentability.

To this end, the legal and regulatory framework should be re-evaluated as soon as possible to ensure that the relevant plant material is excluded from patentability.”

STATEMENT BY AUSTRIA on the occasion of the General Approach on the Regulation on plants obtained by certain new genomic techniques and their food and feed products

“Austria thanks the Spanish Presidency for its work on the legislative proposal and welcomes the efforts for reaching a compromise, in particular that an opt-out option is still provided for category 2 NGT plants.

Austria recognizes the possible potential of new genomic techniques (NGT), however, they are also associated with possible risks. From Austria's point of view, many questions requiring detailed discussions remain open. The current state of discussion, however, does not provide a sufficient basis for a General Approach. Therefore, Austria is opposing the adoption of the General Approach and asks the Presidency to schedule further consultations in order to clarify the open and unanswered questions.

We would like to critically reiterate the following points, which were already raised during the negotiations:

• From Austria's point of view, not carrying out a risk assessment of category 1 NGT plants and their products contradicts the precautionary principle.
• The exclusion of category 1 NGT plants from the application of Directive (EU) 2015/412 (OptOut) violates the principle of subsidiarity. It was precisely this room for maneuver that was a key reason for the adoption of this directive.
• Austria welcomes the intended ban on the use of NGT plants and their products in organic farming. However, the question arises as to how this is to be achieved without massive additional costs for agriculture if there are no plans to label the products of category 1 NGT plants including animal feed. Austria is a pioneer in the EU with 27.7% organic farming and fears this could be jeopardized by the current compromise proposal.
• Consumers have the right to information and freedom of choice. Therefore, labeling of products from category 1 NGT plants is essential from an Austrian perspective.
• For NGT1 it should be possible for Member States to put in place coexistence measures too. These need to be regulated uniformly in the EU to ensure that there is no distortion of competition.
• The possibility that NGT plants can be patented raises fears that a monopoly could be created and SMEs could be forced out of the market.

Furthermore, from an Austrian perspective, there is a risk that biodiversity and the availability of agricultural crops will be restricted.”

To see the current draft compromise version (7 December 2023), see: Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on plants obtained by certain new genomic techniques and their food and feed, and amending Regulation (EU) 2017/625.

For the previous news item on this topic, see:

• 28 November 2023 NEW GENOMIC TECHNIQUES (NGTs) - Council Discussions: Regulation on plants obtained by certain new genomic techniques and their food and feed products - state of play