Yesterday evening, European Parliament’s COM AGRI adopted the draft opinion of MEP Veronika Vrecionová (ECR, CZ) on NGTs with a large majority of 34 in favor, 11 against and 1 abstention.
Copa and Cogeca welcome the opinion of COM AGRI, which specifies that certain NGT plants are conventional-like and must follow the rules of conventional seed breeding and be excluded from patentability.
According to the internal rules of the European Parliament, the COM AGRI shares the competences with the COM ENVI on the definition and provisions regarding category 1 of NGT plants and their products.
Hence, Copa and Cogeca call on the COM ENVI to show equal understanding for the importance of this legislation for the farming sector and consider the opinion of the COM AGRI in its deliberations ahead of the vote in January 2024.
NGTs (or new plant breeding techniques) are needed as part of the toolbox that could enable breeders to speed up their breeding programmes and bring faster and better plant varieties to the market, which must be accessible in all sectors and regions, helping European farmers produce more efficiently, strengthening their resilience to climate change and adverse weather events.
After more than a decade of postponements, the European Commission has finally presented a proposal for a regulation on New Genomic Technique (NGT) plants together with a proposal for the revision of the Plant Reproductive Materials marketing directives on 5 July 2023. Copa and Cogeca consider these Commission’s proposals as a good starting point for delivering solutions, which should be considered in the inter-institutional negotiations.
Fonte: Copa Cogeca
