Initial assessment by BIOVEGEN on the legislative proposal for NGT crops in the EU
On July 5, 2023, the European Commission published its legislative proposal for the “regulation of plants obtained through certain new genomic techniques (NGT)”. These techniques allow for changes to be induced in the plant genome or equivalent material to be introduced, without the insertion of foreign DNA, distinguishing them from Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs or transgenics).
These techniques enable the generation of crops more resistant to climate change or diseases and pests, holding the potential to facilitate the development and use of NGT plants to support the green transition and sustainability.
In the words of Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Food Safety, “we want to give our farmers the tools to produce healthy and safe food, adapted to our changing climate conditions and with respect for our planet.”
From BIOVEGEN, we believe that the proposal is the result of a well-worked process by the Commission, where all stakeholders directly involved in plant improvement have been addressed. This is an aspect to highlight and applaud.
The scientific basis takes on more prominence, distinguishing two types of NGT plants, while at the same time distancing it from genetically modified organisms (understood as those crops that have foreign DNA insertion). In this sense, it is a more balanced proposal compared to the existing one. There is still work to be done on the specification of notification and evaluation processes, which must be based on clear scientific criteria and are currently vulnerable to political issues.
The proposal progresses towards legislation based on the process of obtaining, moving to a more product-based approach. It is a focused, feasible proposal in the right direction, although still insufficient. However, it opens the door to advance in an area that has been blocked for more than twenty years. It is a hopeful proposal for the future, because if necessary, it can be adjusted, and reduces the politicization of the decisions that occur in decisions about GMOs.
The regulation opens the door to facilitate public research centers and SMEs in the development of NGT varieties (reducing complexity and costs of development, authorization, and commercialization).
We express our concern about the processing of the proposal in light of the European elections in May 2024 and the delays this may cause, potentially leading to the obsolescence of the proposal even before it is approved.
The proposal creates 2 new categories of plants (NGT1, NGT2, in addition to the already existing ones – conventional or GMO -) to which different requirements and restrictions apply. Worldwide, verification or evaluation by authorities determines whether the obtained varieties should be considered conventional or GMO, and the sector is concerned about this disorganization.
There is also concern about the prohibition of use in organic or ecological agriculture, especially regarding the NGT1 category, as these are plants deemed equivalent to those that could have been obtained through random mutagenesis or other conventional improvement techniques; there is no scientific basis for this. We believe that all farmers should have the freedom to choose whether or not to use NGT plants according to their needs and preferences. This is especially true when many organic farmers have expressed the desire to make use of conventional-type NGT.