European Union

In December 2025, the European Commission proposed a set of measures to amend the regulations governing food and animal consumption, compiled in a document entitled “Omnibus X”. This document notably proposed the creation of a new legal category: “biocontrol substances”, described as an alternative to chemical pesticides, whose development and marketing the European Commission aims to promote. However, on June 12, the Council of the EU noted the lack of a qualified majority for this text.

On Tuesday 16 June 2026, the Council of the European Union achieved a qualified majority to enter into negotiations with the European Parliament on a draft directive that would allow the release of genetically modified micro-organisms into the environment under less stringent regulatory conditions. France has declared its support for this draft directive. This decision endorses the European Commission’s proposal of 16 December 2025 as part of the “Biotech Acts”. These latter aim to simplify regulations for the benefit of businesses.

On Wednesday 17 June 2026, MEPs adopted the compromise text deregulating GMOs produced using new genetic modification techniques (GMO/NGT). This text, which is identical to that adopted by the Council of the EU on 21 April 2026, means that GMO/NGT will be able to be placed on the market in the EU without authorisation, without risk assessment, without labelling (except on seed lots) and without the publication of methods for detecting and identifying them. It will come into force in 2028.

In April 2026, Jacquet, a subsidiary of Limagrain, withdrew wraps from the French market: they contained genetically modified flax not commercially authorized. While no genetically modified flax varieties are currently officially cultivated worldwide, Canada authorized the cultivation of one variety in 1996 before withdrawing the authorization in 2001. This country has also recently ended its mandatory flax export monitoring program.

In July 2023, alongside its proposal to deregulate new genetic modification techniques (NGTs), the European Commission promised an assessment of the impact of patents on plant breeding. The report, produced by Technopolis and published in December 2025, highlights several problems related to patents. These problems will not be resolved by the non-binding measures adopted by the Council of the European Union in April 2026. Do the European authorities really only listen to the voice of industry, even if it means ignoring the reports they commission?

On 17 June, between 12.30 and 1.30 pm, MEPs, meeting in plenary session, will vote, without debate, on the proposal to deregulate GMOs derived from new genetic modification techniques (GMOs/NGTs). Inf’OGM summarises here some of the positions, campaigns and other calls for action by civil society organisations, elected representatives, businesses and trade unions regarding the risks that its adoption would entail.

The FNSEA (French National Federation of Farmers’ Unions) recently called for the “precautionary principle” to be replaced by an “innovation principle”. Behind this political and semantic offensive lies a challenge to the risk management framework enshrined in the French constitution. Whilst the European Commission says it intends to propose an “innovation regulation” before the end of the year, this demand from the FNSEA echoes the ongoing process of deregulating GMOs derived from new genetic modification techniques (NGTs). By seeking to abolish their assessment, traceability and mandatory labelling, Europe too is disregarding the precautionary principle, which it nevertheless enshrined in the Maastricht Treaty.

Following the European Council’s approval on 21 April of the text aimed at deregulating GMOs produced using new genetic modification techniques (GMOs/NGTs), it is now up to the European Parliament to vote on this text. Ahead of this vote, scheduled for mid-June, 93 European organisations have sent a joint letter to the members of the Parliament’s Environment Committee asking them to “protect farmers’, breeders’ and citizens’ rights”.

ollowing the transposition into French law, at the end of April 2026, of the 2024 European Directive aimed at combating SLAPP (“strategic litigation against public participation”), Inf’OGM publishes here the press release dated 6 May 2026 issued by eleven organisations campaigning on this issue. Deploring “the lack of ambition in this text, drafted without consultation with civil society or parliamentary debate”, these eleven organisations had already published the opinion piece “SLAPP: just 35 days left to act” in the newspaper Le Monde on 31 March 2026, an opinion piece to which Inf’OGM and the Syndicat de la Presse pas pareille were signatories.

As the European Parliament’s plenary vote on the deregulation of GMOs produced by new genetic modification techniques (GMOs/NGTs) approaches, the issue of patents remains a key point of contention. Against this backdrop, the German delegation of the European People’s Party (EPP) has called on the European Commission. It is asking the Commission to show willingness to review Directive 98/44 on “biotechnological inventions” to ensure free access to genetic resources and prevent them from being controlled by major seed companies.

On 21 April 2026, EU Member States voted in favour of deregulating GMOs/NGTs at the EU Foreign Affairs Council. The text is coming back now in the European Parliament’s court, with its Environment Committee due to meet on 5 May, ahead of a plenary session for discussions and votes by MEPs on 19 May 2026.

If the European Commission manages to convince the European Council and Parliament to accept its legislative proposal, many GMOs could be deregulated in Europe. Since the 2010s, it has been argued that these GMOs produced using new techniques (GMOs/NGTs) cannot be distinguished from organisms that have arisen naturally or through conventional breeding. Yet, in 2020, France explained in detail how to make this differentiation technically possible. A fact that the French government seems to have forgotten since…