The European Commission is considering whether to liberalise rules to allow genetically modified (GMO) food products onto the European market without labels, Der Spiegel reports. The German newspaper got its hands on a leaked Commission proposal expected to be presented to the public next month.
The EU has taken a cautionary approach to GMOs from the 1990s until now, with stringent regulations emphasising risk assessment, traceability, and labelling requirements as well as regulating the import of GMOs into the European market.
The new regulations, if actioned, would create new categories of risk while exempting food products created using CRISPR technology from strict regulations, provided that it can be proven that the modified varieties could be created using natural methods. CRISPR is a gene-editing technique that proponents say could help improve drought resistance in crops. The proposals would also exempt certain GMO products from mandatory labelling and even allow GMO and non-GMO seeds to mingle.
GMO regulation is a politically emotive topic within the EU. The leaked information is being heavily criticised by environmentalists who have long claimed that GMO technology represents a threat to ecological systems and human health, and grants an unfair advantage to those agricultural corporations able to master the technology first.
Nina Power from the Corporate Europe Observatory directly linked the decision to lobbying efforts by agricultural giants, saying that the deregulation would represent a “complete undermining of the EU GMO rules.”
In a statement to The European Conservative, a spokeswoman for the Commission refused to comment on specific leaks but mentioned that the EU was indeed looking to review its GMO policy based on recent “scientific advances” motivated by a need to grow food more sustainably due to the impact of climate change.
The spokeswoman added that any new regulations would likely debut July 5th and be based on a public consultation process that the Commission had been engaged in.
Any update to GMO rules could provoke a controversial standoff in the European Parliament where Green Party MEPs are already struggling to defend against claims of environmental overregulation in the form of the Nature Restoration Act.
The leaked Commission document acknowledges the “external dependencies” faced by the EU since COVID and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as it outlines the need to update outdated GMO policy, saying that current practices are increasingly outdated and impossible to implement.
The Commission last updated its GMO policy in 2021 with the “New Genomic Techniques” (NGT) framework which set the stage for deregulation and for GMO products to be assessed individually rather than face blanket regulation.
The leak comes at a crossroads in EU agricultural policy as the bloc contends with the effects of war in Ukraine, new trade deals with the Global South, and the impact of Brussels’ austere climate policy against farmers.
