Draft policy on gene editing in EU set for second quarter

The European Commission (EC)’s draft policy on genetic editing (GE) in the European Union (EU) has been scheduled for the second quarter of this year, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The EC launched a policy initiative on 24 September 2021 to determine how to regulate newer GE techniques as it found its current GMO directive "not fit for prupose", the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) 6 December report ‘Biotechnology and other new production technologies annual’ said.

The policy initiative and roadmap, ‘Legislation for plants produced by certain new genomic techniques’, received more than 70,000 comments in the initial feedback period.

In early 2022, shortly after Russia invaded

Ukraine, the EC noted the potential for “new genomic techniques” in its publication ‘Safeguarding food security and reinforcing the resilience of food systems’.

A 12-week public consultation period followed in April with the proposed legislation subsequently scheduled to be published in the second quarter of this year.

The commercial cultivation of GE crops in the EU was limited to 1% of the EU’s total corn area (around 68,000ha in Spain and 2,000ha in Portugal in 2022), the USDA report said.

The single variety authorised for cultivation was banned in all or parts of 19 member states and the threat of destruction by activists and difficult marketing conditions also discouraged the cultivation of GE crops in general.