EU-28: Advisory Legal Opinion Expected for New Plant Breeding Techniques

On January 18, 2018, an Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the EU (ECJ) is expected to publish his legal opinion clarifying how certain innovative plant breeding techniques should be regulated under EU law (Case C-528/16 Confederation Paysanne and Others). This advisory opinion will set out to answer whether and to what extent organisms developed through certain classical and innovative plant breeding techniques, in particular directed mutagenesis, are to be regulated either through the same framework as conventional plant breeding or as genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Presently, organisms developed through classical mutagenesis breeding techniques are regulated as conventional and are exempt from the EU’s main GMO regulation, Directive 2001/18/EC.

EU-28: Advisory Legal Opinion Expected for New Plant Breeding Techniques