Advisory letter on the EU draft regulation on new genomic techniques

In October 2023, VARIO issued an advisory report on the EU draft regulation on new genomic techniques (NGT’s) upon request of Minister Brouns. This EU legislative proposal (dated July 5, 2023) proposes a relaxation of the GMO regulation for plants and (mainly food-related) genetically modified organisms, which are obtained via New Genomic Techniques (NGTs), such as CRISPR-Cas.

In the context of the Belgian EU Presidency, VARIO would like to once again draw the attention to its advisory report. VARIO believes that an adjustment to the current strict GMO regulation is urgently needed and welcomes any improvement. VARIO even encourages the European legislator to take new regulations (in this area) to a higher level in the future and to apply the innovation principle[1], making legislation future-proof and ensuring legal certainty. The advisory council can, however, agree with the legislative proposal of the European Commission (dated 5 July 2023), but in order to ensure maximum legal certainty, it requests a preliminary thorough revision of Annex 1.[2]

In its new advisory letter, VARIO calls on the Flemish and federal governments and the Flemish Members of the European Parliament to make maximum use of the Belgian EU presidency to safeguard the opportunities for innovation and valorization of these new genomic techniques. VARIO asks, based on its science, innovation and entrepreneurship competency, to indeed keep patenting outside the scope of the EU legislative proposal. In addition, the council urges the effective implementation of the in-depth analysis, which will examine, among other things, what impact the patenting of plants and related licensing and transparency practices may have on innovation in plant breeding, as proposed by the European Commission.

[1] ec_rtd_factsheet-innovation-principle.pdf (europa.eu)

[2] Advisory report 32: EU draft regulation - new gene editing techniques | VARIO