Niveau juridique : Union européenne
Texte de la question :
« The current wording of Directive 2018/350 on the environmental risk assessment of GMOs seems to represent an obstacle to the introduction of innovations in the field of genomic technologies. The 2022 Commission Work Programme does not include any developments in this matter. Any future amendment of this legislation should also take into account scientific studies and the views of the expert community, in particular on the use of CRISPR-Cas9 technology.
In light of the foregoing :
1. Why is the Commission not following the scientific facts and not planning changes to legislation that are based on expert studies and that will significantly help to ensure the EU’s food sovereignty ?
2. How does the Commission intend to address the fact that products such as genetically modified soya and rapeseed are being imported into the EU when such modified plants are not allowed to be grown in the EU ? Does the Commission not consider this discriminatory against European farmers ? »
Réponse donnée par Ms Kyriakideson au nom de la Commission européenne le 23 mai 2022.
« 1. In 2021, the Commission initiated a policy action on plants derived from certain new genomic techniques, namely targeted mutagenesis and cisgenesis. This action is based on the Commission’s study on new genomic techniques (1) that was supported by expert studies by several EU scientific bodies and took into account the views of the scientific community. It aims at enabling innovation and the contribution of these techniques to the European Green Deal (2) and the Farm to Fork Strategy (3), and at ensuring a high level of protection of health and the environment. The inception impact assessment (4) was published for feedback last autumn. The Commission is now preparing an impact assessment and has launched on 29 April 2022 a public consultation to seek views and evidence on a possible new regulatory framework for plants derived from these techniques (5). A legislative proposal, if appropriate in view of the outcome of the impact assessment, would be tabled during the second quarter of 2023.
2. The EU regulatory framework on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) provides for an EU authorisation procedure for different purposes. Most applications submitted are for placing on the market and food/feed uses and not for cultivation. The legislation also recognises that the cultivation of GMOs is an issue with strong national, regional and local dimensions. On this basis, several Member States have used the possibility provided in the EU legislation (6) to restrict or prohibit the cultivation of EU authorised GMOs in their territory. The on-going policy initiative on plants obtained by certain new genomic techniques also addresses the cultivation of these plants
(1) ec.europa.eu/food/system/files/2021-04/gmo_mod-bio_ngt_eu-study.pdf
(2) ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en
(3) ec.europa.eu/food/horizontal-topics/farm-fork-strategy_en
(6) eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32015L0412 »
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