Crop Biotech Update

European Commission Launches Public Consultation on New Genomic Techniques

May 4, 2022

The European Commission has opened a 12-week public consultation on future EU legislation for plants produced using new genomic techniques (NGTs). The consultation, which began on April 29, 2022, will run until July 22, 2022, and calls on civil society, public authorities, business operators, and everyone interested to provide their views on NGTs for plants.

The initiative on plants produced by certain NGTs concerns citizens and stakeholders (e.g., EU and national public authorities, breeders, farmers and other economic operators in the agri-food chain, academia and researchers, non-governmental organizations), both inside and outside the EU, covering a broad range of interests in the fields of agriculture, food and feed, plants, the environment, sustainability, biotechnology in general, and application of targeted mutagenesis and cisgenesis in plants, including their food and feed products, in particular.

The Commission opened the consultation in preparation of a policy initiative on plants obtained by targeted mutagenesis and cisgenesis. It will also cover food and feed derived from such plants. The initiative aims for an appropriate regulatory oversight for the concerned plant products, ensuring a high level of protection of human and animal health and the environment, and enabling innovation and the contribution of plants obtained by safe NGTs to the objectives of the European Green Deal and the Farm to Fork Strategy.

The public consultation is an important source of information for the Commission. It seeks to receive citizens' and stakeholders' views on the functioning of the current GMO legislation for plants obtained by targeted mutagenesis and cisgenesis and their food and feed products.

For more information about the public consultation and how to participate, read the Commission's press release and the press release from the Representation in Cyprus. For more details on the consultation, download the Commission's Factsheet.


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