Belgian EU presidency seeks to break stalemate on gene edited plants patents

6 months ago 12

In a compromise text seen by Euractiv, which will be discussed until Thursday (23 May), the Belgian presidency of the EU Council aims to overcome the main obstacle for EU countries to reach a common position on the controversial rules on last-generation biotech crops.

The new genomic techniques (NGTs) regulation loosens the GMO requirements for biotech plants created with specific genome editing techniques on sustainability grounds.

The legislation is part of the unfinished business of the agrifood policy in this mandate, as the European Parliament adopted its position on the file last February, while the file is blocked in the Council.

The patentability rules are the most contentious issue for member states, a number of which are calling for the exemption of the NGT plants from patents.

The legislative proposal makes a difference between NGT Category 1 plants, to be regulated as conventionally bred plants, and NGT Category 2, falling under the strict GMO legislation.

Warsaw believes that “patents should not restrict the use of NGT plants in the creative work of breeders and growers – in particular, our concerns relate to NGT Category 1 plants”, according to a Council document.

In the new compromise text seen by Euractiv, which will be discussed today and tomorrow by national experts, NGT 1 plants as such should not be protected by patents in the EU or the patent’s holders should commit “not to exercise their rights”.

This is to “facilitate the placing on the market of [NGT] plants and their products” and help farmers’ and small plant breeders operations to access important components of their business.

The issue is problematic, however, because biotech plants patents are regulated by another legislative text, the 1998 directive on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions.

While the Commission proposal left the question of patents unanswered, MEPs agreed to introduce a full ban on patents for all the NGT plants.

According to EU sources, the majority of the EU countries will endorse the compromise. The eyes are on Poland, as it has the weight in votes to change the balance in the Council.

If Warsaw accepts the solution proposed in the new text, there will no longer be a minority block in the Council, which would allow ministers to adopt a shared approach in the 24-25 June meeting on agriculture and fisheries.

“We are working still with the hope to have progress under our presidency”, Belgian diplomatic sources told Euractiv.

Although there will be no time to start negotiations with the Parliament, which has already closed down ahead of June’s EU elections, the presidency will continue to work towards reaching a common position among EU countries until the end of the mandate, Belgian Agriculture Minister David Clarinval stressed at the end of March.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]