EU Member States calling for change on genome editing

The Member States of the EU are developing a draft Council of Ministers Decision requesting
the new incoming European Commission to submit a study on the legal options available to the
EU to enable the development of Plant Breeding Innovation (PBI) such as genome editing in
Europe. This study should take into account the current EU legislation on GMOs and 2018
European Court of Justice ruling that categorized genome editing techniques as GM and as such
made them subject to the EU’s strict approval and labeling requirements for GMOs. That
decision has effectively created an obstacle to the development of genome editing crops in
Europe to the disappointment of European farmers, plant breeding companies, and the
academic community.