In February, the European Commission launched a consultation on NBTs as part of a study it wants to finalise by April 2021. In France, the State Council through a decision, considers that NBTs should be subject to the same clauses as GMOs with regard to the application of the European directive regulating genetically modified organisms.
After Germany, via its Minister of Agriculture calling for greater openness towards NBTs, it is Italy’s turn, via Teresa Bellanova, Minister of Agriculture, who is asking “Europe to distinguish them from GMOs, because the end result is completely different”.
Finally, DG AGRI, via the words director, sees new selection techniques as a means of managing pests in agriculture, as an alternative to pesticides.
In the framework of the Farm to Fork strategy which should be presented at the end of March (and which will be put out for inter-service consultation by the European Commission from Monday 9 March), the Commission indicates that it wants to take legislative initiatives relating to NBTs under its mandate, without mentioning a date at this stage of the internal discussions which are taking place between its services.
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