ENGA (the European Non-GMO Industry Association) and Friends of the Earth Europe denounced the deal
Following the news that on 3 December a deal was reached on the new GMOs (NGT, "new genomic techniques") deregulation file in the "trilogue" discussion between the EU Parliament, Council of the EU, and Commission, below are comments by ENGA, the European Non-GMO Industry Association, and Friends of the Earth Europe.
1. EU lawmakers agree provisional New GMOs legislation that abandons risk assessment, labelling and traceability – ENGA, the European Non-GMO Industry Association
2. New GMOs deal: An early Christmas gift to big biotech – Friends of the Earth Europe
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1. EU lawmakers agree provisional New GMOs legislation that abandons risk assessment, labelling and traceability
ENGA, the European Non-GMO Industry Association, 4 Dec 2025
The Council and the European Parliament negotiators have reached a provisional agreement on the new legislation for New GMOs, which would effectively deregulate New Genomic Techniques (NGTs), removing the requirement for mandatory labelling and traceability, one of the European Parliament’s key demands.
The deal undermines the vital “precautionary principle”, under which GMOs have been subject to comprehensive risk assessment, both to protect consumers and the environment. It also gives up Parliament’s position to ban patents on all New GMOs, which poses a threat to small and medium plant breeders.
This deal casts the negotiators from the EPP (European People's Party), ECR (European Conservatives and Reformists), ESN (Europe of Sovereign Nations) and PfE (Patriots for Europe) in a very bad light; they have abandoned the European Parliament’s key positions: and no patents on NGTs, labelling and traceability for all NGTs – to the detriment of farmers, small breeders, the food sector and, indeed, consumers.
Heike Moldenhauer, Secretary General of ENGA, comments: “Under enormous pressure from Big Agri and Biotech, lawmakers have caved. Deregulating New GMOs and removing transparency — stripping consumers and the food industry of their right to know what is in their food — is not the path to sustainable agriculture and competitiveness of the EU’s food sector.
“We call on the European Parliament and the Council to reject this legislative proposal and to stand up for citizens, who want to know what is in their food, and for a food sector that wishes to continue producing food without GMOs.”
Next steps: Final legislation still to be approved
The vote on the informal agreement must now be endorsed by both Parliament and Council in second reading. Parliament can table amendments. It will then enter into force 20 days after it has been published in the EU Official Journal and will apply two years later.
Further information:
- ENGA background paper on NGT traceability, NGT labelling and NGT detection methods
- Legal opinion on deregulation of NGTs
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2. New GMOs deal: An early Christmas gift to big biotech
Friends of the Earth Europe, 4 Dec 2025
On 3 December, the European Parliament, Council and Commission agreed to fully deregulate the new generation of genetically modified organisms (new GMOs, or so-called "new genomic techniques").
Mute Schimpf, food campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe, condemned this deal: “This agreement is nothing more than an early gift for the biotech industry and a punishment for consumers, farmers and nature. It scraps safety checks, removes labelling and strips people of the right to choose, while letting big corporations cash in through patents. It looks like EU institutions are bending over backwards to please the US government with the most extreme corporate takeover imaginable.”
If this agreement turns into law, new GMOs will no longer be subject to either the EU Environmental liability directive or national liability schemes applicable to growers of GM crops. Should harm be detected ‘by chance’, corporations responsible for marketing GMOs could not be held liable.
Friends of the Earth Europe denounces this extreme scrapping of safeguards, this free pass given to the biotech industry, and calls on ministers and EU Parliamentarians to reject this law in their upcoming EU Council and Plenary votes.