Further reactions to the EU deregulation of new GMOs

1. New GMOs deregulated: A betrayal of farmers, consumers and science itself – Corporate Europe Observatory

2. The deregulation of GMOs is now law in Europe – Centro Internazionale Crocevia
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1. New GMOs deregulated: A betrayal of farmers, consumers and science itself

Corporate Europe Observatory, 17 June 2026

The right-wing majority in the European Parliament today has voted today to scrap existing safety and transparency rules for new GM foods (NGTs). By doing so they betrayed farmers, consumers and science itself.

Today’s vote means that big seed and pesticide companies like Bayer-Monsanto, BASF, Corteva, Syngenta, and their lobby groups including Euroseeds and Croplife EU, can increase their profits and do not have to ensure their products are safe. It will cause an increased dependency by farmers and breeders on these few corporations (mostly US- or China-owned), which is a threat to food security. Already today, these multinational seed corporations dominate 60% of the commercial seed market, leading to a highly concerning level of dependency.

Nina Holland (Corporate Europe Observatory) says:

“From the outset, the NGT law proposal from the European Commission had no scientific basis and is built on false promises of sustainability. The EU is taking a big step back in health and environmental protection by excluding most NGT plants from safety tests and traceability requirements. The rightwing EPP rapporteur Jessica Polfjärd has played a dirty trick on democracy by not actually defending during trilogues the EP’s main demands for labeling and restricting patents as adopted in February 2024."

“On Monday evening already biotech seed lobbyists like Garlich von Essen of Euroseeds were popping champaign bottles in the EP Swan Bar. Copa-Cogeca for its part shamefully betrayed farmers rights by recommending MEPs to vote against the patent amendments, even though farmers and breeders will be harmed by a surge of patented crops. This law goes directly against the need for a more fair, diverse and resilient agriculture.”

"If consumers want to know what is in their food, support farmers and avoid harmful chemicals, the only option is to choose organic food."

Notes

Biotech lobby groups are set to trap farmers and breeders in patent minefield
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2. The deregulation of GMOs is now law in Europe

Centro Internazionale Crocevia

NOTE: This article is an unofficial Deepl translation from the original Italian.

* 21 organisations condemn this extremely serious vote against food sovereignty, farmers’ rights and consumers’ rights

The European Parliament’s vote in favour represents a step backwards of twenty-five years, which abolishes risk assessment, traceability and labelling of genetically modified organisms produced using New Genomic Techniques (NGT) and allows for the transfer of patent rights to conventional plants. This could spell the end of the precautionary principle; by allowing patented GM crops into the environment, it paves the way for further centralisation of the seed market in the hands of a handful of agrochemical multinationals.

21 Italian organisations campaigning in defence of small-scale, organic and biodynamic farming, as well as consumer and citizens’ rights (see list at the end), regard the European Parliament’s final vote on the proposed Regulation on GM plants produced using New Genomic Techniques (NGT, renamed TEA – Techniques of Evolution Assisted by Italian propaganda) as extremely serious. This regulation is also staunchly supported by the major European and national agricultural associations, against the interests of farmers. This measure forms part of a wider drive for deregulation promoted by the European institutions on the false assumption that this will improve competitiveness.

The Regulation will result in the complete deregulation of new GMOs: it provides for the abolition of risk assessment, traceability and methods of identification and detection, liability rules and measures to protect against contamination, as well as consumer product labelling.

Furthermore, EU Member States will not be able to make use of the opt-out clause – that is, the right to ban cultivation on their own territory – which is currently applied by two-thirds of EU countries and by some regions. These key provisions of Directive 2001/18 on GMOs will not apply to NGTs, which will be able to circulate freely on the market and within ecosystems, without transparency and without pre- and post-market monitoring.

NGTs are classified as GMOs solely under intellectual property law. They are, in fact, all covered by patents owned by a handful of large multinationals in the seed sector, such as Corteva, Bayer-Monsanto, Syngenta, BASF, KWS and Limagrain. Without any obligation to disclose detection methods, farmers and small and medium-sized seed companies will remain defenceless in the event of contamination resulting from the cultivation of GMO/NGT crops in neighbouring fields. These patents cover genes similar to those already present in non-GM seeds and will therefore enable multinationals to privatise traditional seeds as well, as provided for in Articles 8 and 9 of EU Directive 98/44, which the amendments not approved by MEPs would have amended for the better.

Companies will now be able to take legal action against farmers and small-scale seed producers for patent infringement if their varieties contain patented genetic traits. The burden of proof will fall on those who have suffered contamination through which these genetic traits are transferred, or on those who have simply developed the same traits through cross-breeding and natural selection.

For small seed companies – the backbone of European plant breeding – this will mean having to carry out extremely costly, time-consuming and impractical searches through patent databases to ascertain whether they are using seeds that contain a genetic trait privatised by a particular company. Most say they lack the capacity or the financial means to undertake such an exercise, running the risk of being forced out of the market or becoming the target of a takeover by the very same large transnational agrochemical companies that are aiming to establish a monopoly.

“In the face of this serious regulatory setback,” the associations state, “we call on citizens, farmers’ organisations, local authorities, social organisations, and national and regional institutions to use every available means to counter and limit the effects of deregulation, to oppose the concentration of power in the hands of multinational seed companies, and to safeguard the food sovereignty of our territories, in defence of biodiversity, farmers’ rights to seeds, and the right to produce and consume GMO-free food.”

Signatories:

AIAB, ARCI, Assobio, Italian Association for Biodynamic Agriculture, Italian Rural Association, Crocevia International Centre, Demeter Italia, Fairwatch, Pro Natura National Federation, Federbio, FIRAB, Seminare il Futuro Foundation, Greenpeace Italia, Legambiente, Lipu, Consumers’ Movement, Navdanya International, Rural Seeds Network, Slow Food Italia, Terra!, WWF Italia.

Source: Centro Internazionale Crocevia 

 Image: Shutterstock (licensed purchase)