EU proposes excluding new GMOs from existing legislation

The institutions of the European Union (EU) are currently discussing a legal proposal on GMOs that covers GM crops and wild plants produced with new genomic techniques (NGTs), also known as “new GMOs.” The proposed law not only excludes new GMOs from the existing EU GMO legislation that requires on-package labeling of all products containing NGTs, but it also excludes most new GMOs from being monitored after release.

In May, 49 civil society organizations from across Europe co-signed a joint statement calling on European decision makers not to remove the transparency provisions for plants obtained through NGTs that currently apply to all GMOs. Leading food chain operators, consumer advocates, and farmer and environmental organizations—including Corporate Europe Observatory, Demeter, GMWatch, foodwatch, Friends of the Earth, and Greenpeace—urged policymakers to uphold mandatory labeling of new GMOs and traceability across the entire value chain. They maintained that the EU proposal would violate established norms of transparency in the food system and threaten public trust.

“The stakes are high,” said Suzy Sumner, Head of foodwatch’s Brussels office. “It is quite simply a matter of consumers’ freedom to choose whether or not to eat products made with these GMOs. The threat is real, and our political decision makers cannot, under pressure from industrial lobbies, allow 450 million European consumers to be kept in the dark about the presence of new GMOs in food. Traceability and transparency in labeling are guaranteed by European law. We want to preserve this freedom of choice and the right to information.”

Organic & Non-GMO Insights June 2025