NGTs: European Parliament gives final green light

Farm Europe and Eat Europe welcome today’s vote by the European Parliament, which adopted at second reading the Council position at first reading on New Genomic Techniques (NGTs). This step is bringing this long-awaited Regulation to its final adoption. After a long way of negotiation, European farmers will finally have the tools they urgently need to strengthen the resilience, competitiveness and sustainability of the agricultural sector.

Today marks an important day for EU agriculture. NGTs are very much needed and farmers are ready to exploit their full potential. This vote declares that the European Parliament has decided to choose science over ideology. That gives farmers the certainty they have long awaited.

By confirming the compromise reached during trilogue negotiations, the European Parliament has sent a strong signal of its commitment to responsible support of the sustainability and competitiveness of EU agricultural enterprises. The Regulation provides a clear regulatory framework which is finally enabling the concrete deployment of innovation. These innovations have become essential to address the challenges posed by climate change altogether with increasing pressure from pests and diseases, water resilience, and the reduction in available crop protection products.

The agreement offers a much-needed opportunity for both farmers and consumers. It will support the path towards sustainable intensification. This is enabling European agriculture to produce more and better, while laying the foundations for a resilient and increasingly carbon-neutral economy in which agriculture is part of the solution.

While the deal is necessarily a compromise, it nevertheless represents a light at the end of the tunnel after years in which European farmers have been constrained by political choices that too often placed ideology ahead of data and science.

Farm Europe and Eat Europe now call on the Commission and the Member States to ensure the swift and effective implementation of the Regulation, so that the benefits of these innovations reach farmers and consumers on the ground without delay. The work does not end with today’s vote: clear, predictable and workable implementing rules will be essential to deliver on the promise of this framework and to keep European agriculture competitive in the global market.