The European Parliament (EP) has brought in new rules to permit new genomic techniques (NGTs) to be applied to plants within its jurisdiction, was announced on Wednesday, June 17th.
Under the new regime, which was finalised last December, there will be a shift towards the European Union regulating plants on the basis of their ultimate genetic character, rather than how they were made.
Going forward, NGT-altered plants will be divided into two categories—each with different legal obligations. An NGT-1 plant would have a limited number and type of changes that could have occurred through conventional breeding, allowing it to be treated as a conventional plant in EU law.
In contrast, an NGT-2 plant would have undergone extensive or complex genetic modifications that could not occur in the wild or with the methods encoded in the NGT-1 category. Such plants would be covered by the existing strict rules on genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Risk assessment will be used to determine the legal and regulatory standing of new plants that are designed to be climate- and pest-resistant, give higher yield crops, or require fewer pesticides.
While the EP will permit the patenting of some NGTs, MEPs claim to have inserted safeguards to prevent monopolistic tendencies and protect farmers.
