Calls on the government, to focus on an exemption from the GMO regulations for the use of the CRISPR / Cas9 technique for targeted plant mutations, as long as such plants could also have been established through classical breeding; In addition, calls on the government to encourage an early decision on new breeding techniques in relation to GMO legislation” PROPOSAL Based on this resolution, the relevant ministries responsible for the environment and agriculture determined in July 2017 that the best way to ‘free’ such products from unnecessary regulation would be to amend the Annex 1b of Directive 2001/18/EC. Their aim was also to create a solution as quickly as possible and to make the regulation more future-proof in the light of the rapid technological developments. The proposal was to add to the techniques already men- tioned in Annex 1b, “techniques, methods or applications thereof resulting in plants, provided that: (1) no other genetic material is introduced into the resulting plant than genetic material from the same plant species or from a plant species with which it can exchange genetic mate- rial through traditional breeding methods, and (2) recombinant nucleic acid molecules that are used for or during modifi- cation are no longer present in the resulting plant that is meant for deliberate introduction into the environment.” When this idea was presented to a stakeholder meeting, the general opin- ion was that the goals were broadly supported, not the method. Adapting Annex 1b would likely take many years, because it was expected that the change of 2001/18/EC could not be limited to the text of Annex 1b alone. Opening the Directive would invite a vast number of proposals to adapt the main text from many sources, includ- ing on medical and industrial bio- technology applications. Still, the two ministries went ahead and organised a meeting with the EU member states early September. This did not create broad sup- port for a variety of reasons – above all the observation that it would be very difficult for the European Commission to support any proposal given a relevant case that is currently pending before the European Court of Justice. The ruling in this case might provide further inter- pretation of the term ‘mutagenesis’. CURRENT SITUATION In early 2017, the ministry responsible for the GMO-dossier has started the planning for a public consultation which was launched in December under the title “Towards a future-proof biotechnology policy”, which entails red, white and green bio- technology. It launched a website, hosted by the science museum NEMO in Amsterdam, at www.biotechnologie.nl. EUROPEAN-SEED.COM I EUROPEAN SEED I 23 The four parties forming the new Cabinet on October 10, 2017, stated in their Coalition Agreement that “The Netherlands will commit itself in Europe to the application and admission of new breeding techniques, such as CRISPR-Cas9, provided that no species-borders are crossed”. The breeding sector is therefore confident that this government will aim at steering the debate in the European Union towards this outcome with regard to gene editing and cisgenesis.