Labeling falls

EU agrees to relax genetic engineering rules

The labeling requirement for genetically modified fruit and vegetables will be relaxed.(Bild: APA-Images / Science Photo Library / CPD)

References to genetically modified food from supermarkets in the EU could soon be a thing of the past: An agreement has been reached in Brussels to exempt such breeds from previously strict EU genetic engineering rules in many cases. It is hoped that this will bring new plant varieties onto the market.

Negotiators from the 27 EU member states and the European Parliament reached an agreement in Brussels to relax the genetic engineering rules. The new regulations still have to be confirmed by the EU Parliament and the EU states. Normally, this is a formality if the negotiators of the institutions have previously agreed on a compromise.

Relaxation affects certain procedures
The rules are to affect so-called New Genomic Techniques (NGT). This concerns a limited number of genetic engineering interventions - such as the "gene scissors" Crispr-Cas - which, according to the EU Commission, merely accelerate conventional breeding.

Elaborate environmental tests are to be omitted
According to participants from both sides, these varieties should only have to be labeled as genetically modified on the seed. In addition, environmental tests prior to approval are to be abolished. Up to now, these have been so time-consuming that approval is so expensive and takes so long that it is often not worthwhile.

The labeling requirement for genetically modified fruit and vegetables will be relaxed.(Bild: APA-Images / Science Photo Library / CPD)

Advocates hope that the changes will result in fruit and vegetable varieties that are more productive, more resistant to climate change, richer in nutrients and require less fertilizer. Scientists also expect less stringent regulations to make research easier.

Agricultural sector welcomes laxer rules
Looser rules already exist in other regions of the world, which is why representatives of the Parliament and EU member states are also focusing on improving competitiveness for farmers. The proposals therefore met with approval in the agricultural sector.

Farmers hope for better competitiveness. Genetically modified fruit and vegetable varieties and cereals should be more resistant to certain germs and pests.(Bild: APA/Zentralbild/Patrick Pleul)

Critics wanted mandatory labeling
Critics demand, among other things, that consumers should be given the freedom to choose whether or not they want to consume such foods. Austrian MEPs are critical of the new regulation: when the parliamentary position was voted on over a year ago, i.e. in the last legislative period before the EU elections, the Austrian MEPs present, with the exception of the NEOS, voted against.

Totschnig fears competitive advantage for corporations
At meetings with his EU counterparts, Agriculture Minister Norbert Totschnig (ÖVP) had always defended Austria's position in favor of freedom of choice and mandatory labeling. He had expressed fears that the Commission's original proposals would favor large corporations and threaten the comparatively small-scale agriculture and seed industry.

Relaxed requirements for patentability
The agreed draft also provides for relaxed requirements for the traceability of genetically modified plants in fields and a regulation for the patentability of the technologies.

Organic products remain GMO-free
Organic farming is to remain GMO-free in future. However, according to Parliament, the "technically unavoidable presence" of genetic engineering should not constitute an infringement.

In principle, both small and significantly larger interventions are possible with genetic scissors. Stricter rules will continue to apply to more extensive interventions in plants in the future - for example, if genes from other species are introduced into a plant. This is the case, for example, when genes from a bacterium are introduced into a maize plant.