Relaxation of the rules for food What has the EU decided on genetic engineering?

Will there soon be no more signs of genetically modified food in the supermarket? What will change for fruit, vegetables and consumers' freedom of choice?

DPA

04.12.2025, 05:52

dpa

Genetically modified food - many people in Germany are uncomfortable with this idea. Now the rules in the EU are to be relaxed. Certain genetically modified foods are to find their way onto the market without special testing or labeling. Negotiators from the EU member states and the European Parliament reached an agreement last night in Brussels to exempt such breeds in many cases from the strict EU genetic engineering rules that have applied to date.

Once the new requirements have been confirmed by the EU Parliament and the EU member states - which is normally considered a formality - consumers will no longer be able to tell at first glance whether they are eating food that has been modified using modern genetic engineering methods. This is why consumer advocates have clearly criticized the plan in the past. Products containing labeled genetically modified plants are currently not sold in Germany.

Organic farming is to remain GMO-free in future. However, according to Parliament, the "technically unavoidable presence" of genetic engineering should not constitute an infringement. A labelling requirement for seeds should make it possible to continue working GMO-free.

New varieties are still subject to statutory variety testing and approval. In other words, genetically modified plants will not come onto the market completely untested in future either. There are also risks associated with conventional breeding methods.

One of the best-known examples is the conventionally bred Lenape potato. It contained an increased level of toxic glycoalkaloids, which occur naturally in potatoes, after a more pest-resistant wild potato was crossed with it. The variety had to be withdrawn from the market.

Among other things, EU genetic engineering law covers methods in which foreign genes are introduced into a plant - such as genes from a bacterium in maize. This so-called transgenesis falls under the strict authorization rules and must be declared.

It also involves a separate approval procedure with risk assessment, which in practice takes several years. This will continue to be the case, with the exception of genetically modified plants that have undergone significantly smaller interventions.

Many researchers see enormous potential. For example, there are hopes of developing a wheat variety that is resistant to the fungal disease mildew. But stress-resistant maize plants or allergen-free peanuts are also conceivable. Proponents also hope that particularly resistant plants will have a positive impact on hunger and the climate crisis.

Advocates also hope that European farmers will become more competitive. Other countries already have weaker rules for modern genetic engineering methods.

Among other things, there is the fear that new genetic engineering methods will be used extensively - i.e. for significantly more than changes that could also be made conventionally. "It would be a completely inadequate description of a gun to say: "This is a kind of hammer. I can use it to hammer a nail into the wall," criticizes Karl Bär, member of the Green Party in the Bundestag.

Ecologist Katja Tielbörger warned in the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" that genetically modified plants could spread in the wild. This would pose risks to the balance of an ecosystem.

Proponents hope that more resistant varieties will reduce the use of pesticides. Theoretically, however, plants can also be bred to be more tolerant to weed and insect killers, which would allow more pesticides to be used.

According to the liberal MEP Pascal Canfin, however, varieties that are resistant to herbicides or produce insecticides should not be approved on the European market. Denmark's Agriculture Minister Jacob Jensen said: "These new varieties could be more resistant to the effects of climate change, such as droughts or floods, and require less fertilizer and pesticides."

Genetic engineering is already indirectly ending up on our plates. "There is no labeling requirement for products from animals that have been fed with genetically modified feed," according to the website of the Ministry of Agriculture. In addition, certain methods involving genetic modification by irradiation or chemicals, for example, are already partially exempt from regulation and labeling under genetic engineering law.

The compromise allows patents for genetically modified plants. According to Parliament, there are to be exceptions for traits "that occur in nature or are produced biologically". The German Farmers' Association is critical of patents on new breeds. "If key plant traits are monopolized by individual companies, our farmers and small and medium-sized breeders will lose access to important genetic material," said Stefanie Sabet, Secretary General of the German Farmers' Association.

The new regulations still have to be confirmed by the EU Parliament and the EU member states. Normally, this is a formality if the negotiators of the institutions have previously agreed on a compromise. Green MEP Martin Häusling assumes that the deal will only get a majority in the European Parliament with the support of far-right groups. This has also been the case recently with other projects.

Due to the 2005 moratorium on genetic engineering, no genetically modified plants may currently be cultivated in Switzerland except for experimental purposes. Genetic engineering is prohibited in livestock. As things stand today, genetically modified plants should not be able to spread in nature. Criticism of the EU Commission's plans, particularly with regard to the elimination of the declaration of genetically modified products, has been voiced by Swiss consumer protection and the umbrella organization Biosuisse, among others.

Parliament has extended the cultivation moratorium on genetically modified plants, which expires at the end of 2025, by a further five years. This should leave enough time to discuss the government's planned easing of restrictions for plants from new genetic engineering techniques (NGT) in agriculture. Numerous critical comments have been received on the draft bill presented at the beginning of April 2025. According to media reports, the bill is to be introduced to parliament in the first quarter of 2026.

Parliament has tasked the Federal Council with regulating the CRISPR gene scissors. In 2024, the Federal Council announced its intention to regulate this outside of the existing Gene Technology Act. The Federal Council received the mandate from Parliament in 2022. In spring, Federal Councillor Albert Rösti (SVP) presented the "Federal Act on Plants from New Breeding Technologies". The tricky word "genetic engineering" was missing from the draft, wrote the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper in November. The SVP Federal Council wanted to allow CRISPR-edited plant varieties with a declaration. There is "broad resistance" to the plan.

CRISPR changes the genetic material of a plant; potatoes, for example, can be made resistant to late blight by cutting into their genetic material. This would involve deleting, replacing or inserting DNA building blocks.