Food Law News - EU - 2019
Council of the EU Minutes, 8 November 2019
GM FOOD - Council decision requesting a Commission study on the status of novel genomic techniques
The following is an extract from the minutes of the Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Council meeting on the 8 November 2019
The Council adopted a decision asking the Commission to submit a study on novel genomic techniques under EU law, in the light of the Court of Justice's judgment in case C-528/16 (12781/19).
Recent developments in new breeding techniques have raised a series of practical questions for national competent authorities on whether such new breeding techniques come under the definition of a GMO and the scope of directive 2001/18/EC and, as a consequence, whether products obtained by means of these techniques should be subject to the obligations laid down in directive 2001/18/EC.
In its judgment in case C-528/16, the Court of Justice, after considering the overall objectives of directive 2001/18/EC, ruled that new mutagenesis techniques fall within the scope of that directive and are subject to the obligations laid down therein.
Note: the Decision has been published in the Official Journal. See:
- Council Decision (EU) 2019/1904 of 8 November 2019 requesting the Commission to submit a study in light of the Court of Justice's judgment in Case C-528/16 regarding the status of novel genomic techniques under Union law, and a proposal, if appropriate in view of the outcomes of the study (OJ L293, 14.11.2019, page 103)