Biotechnology industry association welcomes proposal for amendment of EU genetic engineering law

The long-awaited draft amendment to EU genetic engineering law was officially presented by the EU Commission on July 5. The biotechnology industry association BIO Deutschland welcomes the current proposal. Plants that have been modified using genetic scissors, e. g. CRISPR/Cas, in a way that they could have been produced naturally, will be removed from the scope of the genetic engineering law, but must be entered in a transparency register. According to BIO Deutschland, this is a sensible approach that will also enable plant breeders in Europe to use genetic scissors in plant breeding in practice to make crops fit for climate change more quickly without having to spend years working towards approval.