Conférence de haut-niveau Commission Européenne - Modern Biotechnologies in Agriculture – Paving the way for responsible innovation

Niveau juridique : Union européenne

Organisée par la Commission européenne, cette conférence s’est tenue le 28-09-2017.

Extraits choisis du compte rendu :

« During the past decade, a number of innovations have developed in bioscience. Because of this, the Commission mandated the Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM) to present a state of play of the new techniques in agricultural biotechnologies. The SAM conclusions, presented at the conference, show that:

All living organisms are subject to alterations to their genetic information due to molecular processes which can occur spontaneously and/or due to exposure to environmental stressors.

All breeding techniques applicable in agriculture make use of « genetic diversity and change » in order to allow the selection of desirable traits, whether such changes occur naturally or result from human intervention.

There is heterogeneity within modern biotechnologies: some of these techniques do not lead to the inclusion of genetic material from other species or to changes of genetic sequences, whereas others do.

(…)

During the conference, legal uncertainty was repeatedly alluded to; in this context, it is important to mention that the Court of Justice of the European Union will render - probably in Spring next year -a ruling on (i) whether organisms produced by targeted mutagenesis techniques are excluded from the GMO-legislation and; (ii) whether Member States can regulate exempted organisms. The future ruling will address some but not all questions related to modern biotechnologies. The outcome of the ruling will need to be analysed thoroughly in order to assess the impact and decide what should be done next.

The Commission is willing to continue the dialogue, initiated with the September conference, with all Member States and is committed to work with the European Parliament, the Council and other stakeholders, including civil society, towards defining a common and constructive way forward.»

Le compte rendu de la conférence est disponible ici

Lien vers la note explicative du SAM sur les nouvelles techniques en biotechnologie agricole ici

Lien vers la vidéo ici