Euroseeds and CropLife Europe are calling for a “science-based approach” in the Commission’s New Genomic Techniques proposal according to a release. Both note they appreciate the Commission’s work on the proposal, which is set to be published on July 5, 2023. Both organizations sent a letter to DG SANTE with comments on the publicly available draft proposal.
From the letter, the organizations shared areas of both agreement and suggestions for change. The letter said, “The future framework should be based on science.” This was the overall tone of the letter from Euroseeds and CropLife Europe.
The organizations are looking for “clear definitions and scientific criteria (in the Annexes) providing legal certainty for developers and efficient administrative processes instead of politicized decision procedures,” according to the letter.
The letter noted that allowing less limits on the number of modifications will allow more complex crops to benefit more from new breeding techniques. Due to some crops being more resilient and requiring multiple genes being edited, restricting the number of modifications could diminish the potential of NGT applications.
The letter added, “We consider any technology specific regulation of certain traits as lacking a scientific basis and being discriminatory.”
Read the full letter here.
