Thirteen French organisations highlight shortcomings and flaws of the EU proposal
The draft European regulation, currently in the process of being adopted, which aims to deregulate almost all genetically modified plants derived from new genomic techniques (NGTs), is marred by numerous and significant scientific shortcomings, says France Nature Environnement in a new article.
A coalition of French organisations, including France Nature Environnement, has submitted a comprehensive document to the European Commission highlighting these shortcomings.
The regulation proposed by the European Commission in July 2023 would exempt almost all GM plants derived from NGTs from risk assessment, traceability, labelling and monitoring. A provisional agreement reached in December is now awaiting final adoption by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union (EU).
On 21 February 2026, thirteen French organisations representing citizens, the environment and the organic sector sent a letter to the Commission with a view to lodging a complaint with the EU Ombudsman.
This substantial document (130 pages) highlights in detail the significant shortcomings and flaws in the way the Commission prepared and drafted its legislative proposal, thereby undermining its legitimacy.
The coalition's approach, based on an extensive scientific bibliography, presents a precise analysis of the biased trajectory of the EU’s institutional expertise – and its use by the Commission – which has resulted in a text that wrongly portrays NGTs as safe and well-controlled techniques.
This proposal to deregulate NGTs goes so far as to establish a principle of equivalence between GM-NGTs and plants derived from conventional varieties, and to regard them as ‘a priori’ beneficial to the environment and sustainable agriculture.
With the help of specialists, including leading biologists, the coalition demonstrates that the proposed regulation on NGTs is based entirely on flawed scientific paradigms, despite numerous studies and scientific warnings that the Commission should not have ignored, particularly regarding the risks.
The coalition also highlights shortcomings in the prior consultations and impact assessments, as well as problematic deficiencies in the organisation of institutional expertise, the results of which have been exploited.
The coalition also cites research programmes on traceability that have been deliberately delayed and, more broadly, an outdated approach to molecular biology, as well as risks that have been downplayed or, in the case of systemic risks, even concealed.
In the letter, each of the points raised (risks, the principle of equivalence, traceability, patents, organic farming, ethics, etc.) is explained and substantiated from both a legal and scientific perspective, and assessed in terms of its (non-)compliance with EU principles and rights, as well as with the principles of good administration that the Commission itself has adopted.
The thirteen organisations therefore call on the European Commission to withdraw its proposed regulation on NGTs, and at the very least to respond to their questions and demands regarding its shortcomings, both legal and scientific.
Source: France Nature Environnement
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