Overwegingen bij COM(2023)411 - Met bepaalde nieuwe genomische technieken verkregen planten en de daarvan afgeleide levensmiddelen en diervoeders - Hoofdinhoud
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| dossier | COM(2023)411 - Met bepaalde nieuwe genomische technieken verkregen planten en de daarvan afgeleide levensmiddelen en diervoeders. |
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| document | COM(2023)411  |
| datum | 5 juli 2023 |
(2)NGTs constitute a diverse group of genomic techniques, and each of them can be used in various ways to achieve different results and products. They can result in organisms with modifications equivalent to what can be obtained by conventional breeding methods or in organisms with more complex modifications. Among NGTs, targeted mutagenesis and cisgenesis (including intragenesis) introduce genetic modifications without inserting genetic material from non-crossable species (transgenesis). They rely only on the breeders’ gene pool, i.e. the total genetic information that is available for conventional breeding including from distantly related plant species that can be crossed by advanced breeding techniques. Targeted mutagenesis techniques result in modification(s) of the DNA sequence at precise locations in the genome of an organism. Cisgenesis techniques result in the insertion, in the genome of an organism, of genetic material already present in the breeders’ gene pool. Intragenesis is a subset of cisgenesis resulting in the insertion in the genome of a rearranged copy of genetic material composed of two or more DNA sequences already present in the breeders’ gene pool.
(3)There is ongoing public and private research using NGTs on a wider variety of crops and traits compared to those obtained through transgenic techniques authorised in the Union or globally( 33 ). This includes plants with improved tolerance or resistance to plant diseases and pests, plants with improved tolerance or resistance to climate change effects and environmental stresses, improved nutrient and water-use efficiency, plants with higher yields and resilience and improved quality characteristics. These types of new plants, coupled with the fairly easy and speedy applicability of those new techniques, could deliver benefits to farmers, consumers and to the environment. Thus, NGTs have the potential to contribute to the innovation and sustainability goals of the European Green Deal ( 34 ) and of the ‘Farm to Fork’ ( 35 ), Biodiversity ( 36 ) and Adaptation to Climate Change( 37 ) Strategies, to global food security ( 38 ), the Bioeconomy Strategy ( 39 ) and to the Union’s strategic autonomy ( 40 ).
(4)The deliberate release into the environment of organisms obtained by NGTs, including products containing or consisting of such organisms, as well as the placing on the market of food and feed produced from these organisms, are subject to Directive 2001/18/EC and, Regulation (EC) No 1830/2003 ( 41 ) of the European Parliament and of the Council and, in the case of food and feed, also to Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 ( 42 ), while the contained use of plant cells is subject to Directive 2009/1/EC, and transboundary movements of NGT plants to third countries are regulated by Regulation (EC) No 1946/2003 (‘the Union GMO legislation’).
(5)In its judgment in case C-528/16 Confédération paysanne and Others 43 the Court of Justice of the European Union held that GMOs obtained by means of new techniques/methods of mutagenesis that had appeared or had been mostly developed since Directive 2001/18/EC was adopted could not be considered excluded from the scope of that Directive.
(6)The Council, in Decision (EU) 2019/1904 44 , requested the Commission to submit, by 30 April 2021, a study in light of that judgment regarding the status of novel genomic techniques under Union law, and a proposal (accompanied by an impact assessment), if appropriate, depending on the conclusions of the study.
(7)The Commission’s study on new genomic techniques ( 45 ) concluded that the Union GMO legislation is not fit for the purpose of regulating the deliberate release of plants obtained by certain NGTs and the placing on the market of related products including food and feed. In particular, the study concluded that the authorisation procedure and risk assessment requirements for GMOs under the Union GMO legislation are not adapted to the variety of potential organisms and products that can be obtained with some NGTs, namely targeted mutagenesis and cisgenesis (including intragenesis), and these requirements can be disproportionate or inadequate. The study showed that this is particularly the case for plants obtained by these techniques, given the amount of scientific evidence that is already available, in particular on their safety. Furthermore, the Union GMO legislation is difficult to implement and enforce for plants obtained by targeted mutagenesis and cisgenesis and related products. In certain cases, genetic modifications introduced by these techniques are indistinguishable with analytical methods from natural mutations or from genetic modifications introduced by conventional breeding techniques, whereas the distinction is generally possible for genetic modifications introduced by transgenesis. The Union GMO legislation is also not conducive to developing innovative and beneficial products that could contribute to sustainability, food security and resilience of the agri-food chain.
(8)It is therefore necessary to adopt a specific legal framework for GMOs obtained by targeted mutagenesis and cisgenesis and related products when deliberately released into the environment or placed on the market.
(9)Based on the current scientific and technical knowledge in particular on safety aspects, this Regulation should be limited to GMOs that are plants, i.e. organisms in the taxonomic groups Archaeplastida or Phaeophyceae, excluding microorganisms, fungi and animals for which the available knowledge is more limited. For the same reason, this Regulation should only cover plants obtained by certain NGTs: targeted mutagenesis and cisgenesis (including intragenesis) (hereinafter ‘NGT plants’), but not by other new genomic techniques. Such NGT plants do not carry genetic material from non-crossable species. GMOs produced by other new genomic techniques that introduce into an organism genetic material from non-crossable species (transgenesis) should remain subject only to the Union GMO legislation, given that the resulting plants might bear specific risks associated to the transgene. Moreover, there is no indication that current requirements in the Union GMO legislation for GMOs obtained by transgenesis need adaptation at the present time.
(10)The legal framework for NGT plants should share the objectives of the Union GMO legislation to ensure a high level of protection of human and animal health and of the environment and the good functioning of the internal market for the concerned plants and products, while addressing the specificity of NGT plants. This legal framework should enable the development and placing on the market of plants, food and feed containing, consisting of or produced from NGT plants and other products containing or consisting of NGT plants (‘NGT products’) so as to contribute to the innovation and sustainability objectives of the European Green Deal and the Farm to Fork, Biodiversity and Climate Adaptation strategies and to enhance the competitiveness of the Union agri-food sector at Union and world level.
(11)This Regulation constitutes lex specialis with regard to the Union GMO legislation. It introduces specific provisions for NGT plants and NGT products. However, where there are no specific rules in this Regulation, NGT plants and products (including food and feed) obtained from them should remain subject to the requirements of the Union GMO legislation and the rules on GMOs in sectoral legislation, such as Regulation (EU) 2017/625 on official controls or the legislation on certain products like plant and forest reproductive material.
(12)The potential risks of NGT plants vary, ranging from risk profiles similar to conventionally-bred plants to various types and degrees of hazards and risks that might be similar to those of plants obtained by transgenesis. This Regulation should therefore lay down special rules to adjust the risk assessment and risk management requirements according to the potential risks or lack thereof posed by NGT plants and NGT products.
(13)This Regulation should distinguish between two categories of NGT plants.
(14)NGT plants that could also occur naturally or be produced by conventional breeding techniques and their progeny obtained by conventional breeding techniques (‘category 1 NGT plants’) should be treated as plants that have occurred naturally or have been produced by conventional breeding techniques, given that they are equivalent and that their risks are comparable, thereby derogating in full from the Union GMO legislation and GMO related requirements in sectoral legislation. In order to ensure legal certainty, this Regulation should set out the criteria to ascertain if a NGT plant is equivalent to naturally occurring or conventionally bred plants and lay down a procedure for competent authorities to verify and take a decision on the fulfillment of those criteria, prior to the release or placing on the market of NGT plants or NGT products. Those criteria should be objective and based on science. They should cover the type and extent of genetic modifications that can be observed in nature or in organisms obtained with conventional breeding techniques and should include thresholds for both size and number of genetic modifications to the genome of NGT plants. Since scientific and technical knowledge evolves rapidly in this area, the Commission should be empowered in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to update these criteria in light of scientific and technical progress as regards the type and extent of genetic modifications that can occur in nature or through conventional breeding.
(15)All NGT plants that are not category 1 (‘category 2 NGT plants’) should remain subject to the requirements of the Union GMO legislation because they feature more complex sets of modifications to the genome.
(16)Category 1 NGT plants and products should not be subject to the rules and requirements of the Union GMO legislation and to provisions in other Union legislation that apply to GMOs. For legal certainty for operators and transparency, a declaration of the category 1 NGT plant status should be obtained prior to deliberate release, including the placing on the market.
(17)This declaration should be obtained prior to any deliberate release of any category 1 NGT plants for any other purpose than placing on the market, such as for field trials that are to take place in the territory of the Union, since the criteria are based on data that is available before the field trials and does not depend on these field trials. When no field trials are to take place in the territory of the Union, operators should obtain that declaration before placing the category 1 NGT product on the market.
(18)Since the criteria for considering that a NGT plant is equivalent to naturally occurring or conventionally bred plants are unrelated to the type of activity that requires the deliberate release of the NGT plant, a declaration of the category 1 NGT plant status made prior to its deliberate release for any other purpose than placing on the market in the territory of the Union should also be valid for the placing on the market of related NGT products. In view of the high uncertainty existing at the field trial stage about the product reaching the market and the likely involvement of smaller operators in such releases, the verification procedure of category 1 NGT plant status prior to field trials should be conducted by national competent authorities as this would be less administratively burdensome for operators, and a decision should be taken at Union level only in case there are comments to the verification report by other national competent authorities. Where the verification request is submitted prior to the placing on the market of NGT products, the procedure should be conducted at Union level in order to ensure effectiveness of the verification procedure and consistency of the category 1 NGT plant status declarations.
(19)The competent authorities of the Member States, the Commission and the European Food Safety Authority (‘the Authority’) should be subject to strict deadlines to ensure that category 1 NGT plant status declarations are made within a reasonable time.
(20)The verification of category 1 NGT plant status is of technical nature and does not involve any risk assessment or risk management considerations and the decision on the status is only declaratory. Therefore, when the procedure is conducted at Union level, such implementing decisions should be adopted by the advisory procedure, supported by scientific and technical assistance by the Authority.
(21)Decisions declaring the category 1 NGT plant status should assign an identification number to the NGT plant concerned in order to ensure transparency and traceability of such plants when they are listed in the database and for the purpose of labelling of plant reproductive material derived from them.
(22)Category 1 NGT plants should remain subject to any regulatory framework that applies to conventionally bred plants. As is the case for conventional plants and products, those NGT plants and their products will be subject to the applicable sectoral legislation on seed and other plant reproductive material, food, feed and other products, and horizontal frameworks, such as the nature conservation legislation and environmental liability. In this regard, category 1 NGT food featuring a significantly changed composition or structure that affects the nutritional value, metabolism or level of undesirable substances of the food will be considered as novel food and thus fall into the scope of Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 46 ) and will be risk assessed in that context.
(23)Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and the Council on organic production and labelling of organic products and repealing Council Regulation (EC) 834/2007( 47 ) prohibits the use of GMOs and products from and by GMOs in organic production. It defines GMOs for the purposes of that Regulation by reference to Directive 2001/18/EC, excluding from the prohibition GMOs which have been obtained through the techniques of genetic modification listed in Annex 1.B of Directive 2001/18/EC. As a result, category 2 NGT plants will be banned in organic production. However, it is necessary to clarify the status of category 1 NGT plants for the purposes of organic production. The use of new genomic techniques is currently incompatible with the concept of organic production in the Regulation (EC) 2018/848 and with consumers’ perception of organic products. The use of category 1 NGT plants should therefore be also prohibited in organic production.
(24)Provision should be made to ensure transparency as regards the use of category 1 NGT plant varieties, to ensure that production chains that wish to remain free from NGTs can do so and thereby safeguard consumer trust. NGT plants that have obtained a category 1 NGT plant status declaration should be listed in a publicly available database. To ensure traceability, transparency and choice for operators, during research and plant breeding, when selling seed to farmers or making plant reproductive material available to third parties in any other way, plant reproductive material of category 1 NGT plants should be labelled as category 1 NGT.
(25)Category 2 NGT plants should remain subject to the requirements of the Union GMO legislation given that on the basis of current scientific and technical knowledge, their risks need to be assessed. Special rules should be provided in order to adapt the procedures and certain other rules laid down in Directive 2001/18/EC and Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 to the specific nature of category 2 NGT plants and the differing levels of risk that they may pose.
(26)Category 2 NGT plants and products, in order to be released into the environment or placed on the market, should remain subject to a consent or authorisation in accordance with Directive 2001/18/EC or Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003. However, given the wide variety of those NGT plants, the amount of information necessary for the risk assessment will vary on a case-by-case basis. The Authority, in its scientific opinions on plants developed through cisgenesis and intragenesis 48 and on plants developed through targeted mutagenesis 49 recommended flexibility in data requirements for the risk assessment of these plants. Based on the Authority’s ‘Criteria for risk assessment of plants produced by targeted mutagenesis, cisgenesis and intragenesis’ ( 50 ), considerations on the history of safe use, familiarity for the environment and the function and structure of the modified/inserted sequence(s) should assist in determining the type and amount of data required to perform the risk assessment of those NGT plants. It is therefore necessary to establish general principles and criteria for the risk assessment of these plants, while providing for flexibility and possibility to adapt risk assessment methodologies to scientific and technical progress.
(27)Requirements on the content of notifications for consent for the placing on the market of products containing or consisting of GMOs other than food or feed and on the content of applications for authorisation for the placing on the market of genetically modified food and feed are laid down in different pieces of legislation. To ensure consistency between the notifications for consent and applications for authorisation for category 2 NGT products, the content of such notifications and applications should be the same, except those concerning the assessment of food and feed safety assessment as these are only relevant to category 2 NGT food and feed.
(28)The European Union Reference Laboratory for GM Food and Feed (EURL), in collaboration with the European Network of GM Laboratories (ENGL), concluded that analytical testing is not considered feasible for all products obtained by targeted mutagenesis and cisgenesis ( 51 ). When the introduced modifications of the genetic material are not specific to the NGT plant in question, they do not allow the differentiation of the NGT plant from conventional plants. In cases where it is not feasible to provide an analytical method that detects, identifies and quantifies, if duly justified by the notifier or the applicant, the modalities to comply with analytical method requirements should be adapted. This should be done in the implementing acts adopted pursuant to this Regulation. Provision should also be made for the EURL, assisted by the ENGL, to adopt guidance for applicants on the minimum performance requirements for analytical methods. Modalities for performing method validation may also be adapted.
(29)Directive 2001/18/EC requires a monitoring plan for environmental effects of GMOs after their deliberate release or placing on the market but provides for flexibility as to the design of the plan taking into account the environmental risk assessment, the characteristics of the GMO, of its expected use and of the receiving environment. Genetic modifications in category 2 NGT plants may range from changes only needing a limited risk assessment to complex alterations requiring a more thorough analysis of potential risks. Therefore, post-market monitoring requirements for environmental effects of category 2 NGT plants should be adapted in the light of the environmental risk assessment and the experience in field trials, the characteristics of the NGT plant concerned, the characteristics and scale of its expected use, in particular any history of safe use of the plant and the characteristics of the receiving environment. Therefore, a monitoring plan for environmental effects should not be required if the category 2 NGT plant is unlikely to pose risks that need monitoring, such as indirect, delayed or unforeseen effects on human health or on the environment.
(30)For reasons of proportionality, after a first renewal of the authorisation, the authorisation should be valid for an unlimited period, unless decided differently at the time of that renewal based on the risk assessment and the available information on the NGT plant concerned, subject to reassessment when new information has become available.
(31)For reasons of legal certainty and good administration, the timeline for the Authority to deliver its opinion on an application for authorisation should only be extended when additional information is necessary to carry out the assessment of the application, and the extension should not be longer than the originally foreseen time limit unless it is justified by the nature of the data or exceptional circumstances.
(32)To increase transparency and consumers’ information, operators should be allowed to complement the labelling of category 2 NGT products as GMO with information on the trait conferred by the genetic modification. In order to avoid misleading or confusing indications, a proposal for such a labelling should be provided in the notification for consent or in the application for authorisation and should be specified in the consent or in the authorisation decision.
(33)Regulatory incentives should be offered to potential notifiers or applicants for category 2 NGT plants and products containing traits with the potential to contribute to a sustainable agri-food system, in order to steer the development of category 2 NGT plants towards such traits. The criteria to trigger these incentives should focus on broad trait categories with the potential to contribute to sustainability (such as those linked to tolerance or resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, improved nutritional characteristics or increased yield) and should be based on the contribution to the value for sustainable cultivation and use as defined in [Article 52(1) of the Commission’s Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the production and marketing of plant reproductive material in the Union 52 ]. The applicability of the criteria across the EU does not allow a narrower definition of traits to focus on specific issues or address local and regional specificities.
(34)Incentives should consist in an accelerated procedure for risk assessment as regards applications handled by a fully centralised procedure (food and feed products) and enhanced pre-submission advice to help developers prepare the dossier for the purpose of the environmental and food and feed safety assessments, without affecting the general provisions on pre-submission advice, notification of studies and consultation of third parties pursuant to Articles 32a, 32b and 32c of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002( 53 ).
(35)Additional incentives should be afforded when the notifier or applicant is a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), to promote access to the regulatory procedures by these enterprises, support diversification of developers of NGT plants and encourage the development by small breeders of crop species and traits by means of NGTs, by granting fee waivers for the validation of detection methods to SMEs and more extensive pre-submission advice covering also the design of studies to be carried out for the purpose of risk assessment.
(36)Herbicide tolerant plants are bred to be intentionally tolerant to herbicides, in order to be cultivated in combination with the use of those herbicides. If such cultivation is not done under appropriate conditions, it may lead to development of weeds resistant to those herbicides or to the need to increase of quantities of herbicides applied, regardless of the breeding technique. For this reason, NGT plants featuring herbicide-tolerant traits should not be eligible for incentives under this framework. However, this Regulation should not take other specific measures on herbicide tolerant NGT plants, because such measures are taken horizontally in [the Commission’s Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the production and marketing of plant reproductive material in the Union].
(37)In order to enable NGT plants to contribute to the sustainability objectives of the Green Deal and the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies, cultivation of NGT plants in the Union should be facilitated. This requires predictability for breeders and farmers as regards the possibility to cultivate such plants in the Union. Therefore, the possibility for Member States to adopt measures restricting or prohibiting the cultivation of category 2 NGT plants in all or part of their territory, set out in Article 26b of Directive 2001/18/EC would undermine those goals.
(38)The special rules laid down in this Regulation concerning the authorisation procedure for category 2 NGT plants are expected to result in more cultivation in the Union of category 2 NGT plants compared to the situation so far under the current Union GMO legislation. That renders necessary for Member States’ public authorities to define coexistence measures to balance the interests of producers of conventional, organic and GM plants and thereby allow producers a choice between different types of production, in line with the Farm to Fork Strategy’s target of 25 % of agricultural land under organic farming by 2030.
(39)To achieve the goal of ensuring the effective functioning of the internal market, NGT plants and related products should benefit from the free movement of goods, provided they comply with the requirements of other Union law.
(40)Given the novelty of the NGTs, it will be important to monitor closely the development and presence on the market of NGT plants and products and evaluate any accompanying impact on human and animal health, the environment and environmental, economic and social sustainability. Information should be collected regularly and within five years after the adoption of the first decision allowing the deliberate release or the marketing of NGT plants or NGT products in the Union, the Commission should carry out an evaluation of this Regulation to measure the progress made towards the availability of NGT plants containing such characteristics or properties on the EU market.
(41)In order to provide a high level of protection of health and environmental protection in relation to NGT plants and NGT products, requirements arising from this Regulation should apply in a non-discriminatory manner to products originating in the Union and imported from third countries.
(42)Since the objectives of this Regulation cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States but can be better achieved at Union level, so that NGT plants and NGT products may circulate freely within the internal market, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives.
(43)The types of NGT plants developed and the impact of certain traits on environmental, social and economic sustainability are continuously evolving. Therefore, based on the available evidence of such developments and impacts, the Commission should be empowered in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to adapt the list of traits that should be incentivized or discouraged to achieve the goals of the Green Deal and the Farm to Fork, Biodiversity and Climate Adaptation strategies.’
(44)It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level, and that those consultations be conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making ( 54 ). In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council receive all documents at the same time as Member States’ experts, and their experts systematically have access to meetings of Commission expert groups dealing with the preparation of delegated acts.
(45)In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Regulation, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission as regards the information required to demonstrate that a NGT plant is a category 1 NGT plant, as regards the preparation and the presentation of the notification for that determination, and as regards the methodology and information requirements for the environmental risk assessments of category 2 NGT plants and of NGT food and NGT feed, in accordance with the principles and criteria laid down in this Regulation. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council( 55 ).
(46)The Commission should regularly collect information in order to assess the performance of the legislation in achieving the development and availability of NGT plants and NGT products in the market that can contribute to the objectives of the Green Deal and the Farm to Fork, Biodiversity and Climate Adaptation strategies and in order to inform an evaluation of the legislation. A broad set of indicators have been identified 56 and should be periodically reviewed by the Commission. The indicators should support monitoring of potential risks to health or the environment of category 2 NGT plants and related NGT products, impact of NGT plants on environmental, economic and social sustainability as well as impact on organic agriculture and on consumers acceptance of NGT products. A first monitoring report should be presented three years after the first products have been notified/authorised, to ensure that enough data is available after full implementation of the new legislation, and at regular intervals thereafter. The Commission should carry out an evaluation of this Regulation two years after the first monitoring report has been published, in order to allow for the impact of the first products going through the verification or authorisation to fully materialise.
(47)Certain references to provisions of the Union GMO legislation in Regulation (EU) 2017/625 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 57 ) need to be amended to include the specific provisions in this legislation applicable to NGT plants.
(48)Since the application of this Regulation requires the adoption of implementing acts, it should be deferred in time to allow for the adoption of such measures.