Green light from the European Chamber to the EU standards for new genomic techniques, Ngt, in Italy called Tea, Assisted evolution techniques.
A highly anticipated text intended to make the food system more sustainable, with new improved plant varieties, more resistant to climate change and parasites and requiring less fertilizers and pesticides, protecting environmental sustainability.
Parliament is now ready to start negotiations with EU states on the final law.
A decision that comes the day after the announcement of the withdrawal by the EU Commission of the proposal on pesticides which envisaged a 50% cut by 2030.
But it was a painful vote, with 307 in favor, 263 against and 41 abstentions, which split the Democratic Party, as well as the Conservatives but which saw Fdi united in favor of the yes vote.
With this new regulation, MEPs agree with the proposal put forward on 5 July by the European Commission to divide NGT plants into two different categories subject to different constraints, that of plants with simple mutations (NGT 1) to an authorization process fast, exempt from most of the safety requirements provided for by EU legislation on GMOs;
and the category that includes all other plants (NGT 2) produced with more complex modifications will continue to be equated with GMOs.
Teas, in fact, involve mutations using genes that come from the same species and are therefore indistinguishable from those that originate in nature.
In the case of GMOs we talk about the insertion into the original genome of gene sequences coming from other species (plants, animals or bacteria), i.e. introducing foreign DNA and creating transgenic organisms.
Organic production remains excluded.
"The first green light from the European Parliament is excellent news - comments the Minister of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida - also in this the EU follows Italy which was at the forefront with the unanimous approval, last May, of the "amendment which authorizes experimentation in the Tea field. Working in this direction will give us the possibility of obtaining plants that are more resistant to drought and climate change, and with improved qualitative characteristics. We must invest in these techniques without ideologies or prejudices".
A vote which, according to Paolo De Castro, PD member of the European Parliament, helps to "re-establish the bond that has always linked the Union and our farmers. We need to put in place adequate tools to make the sector increasingly competitive and sustainable" .
The reactions of the agricultural world were immediate, starting from Coldiretti, according to which it is "the new green No GMO genetics which will allow the selection of new plant varieties, with greater environmental sustainability, less use of chemical inputs, but also resilience and adaptation to changes climate, respecting biodiversity and the distinctiveness of Italian and European agriculture".
And Filera Italia also thinks so.
For Confagricoltura, "it is an important step to close a good agreement and avoid postponement to the new legislature".
While according to the CIA "to combat climate change, biological and integrated control, precision agriculture and biocontrol cannot be enough, new genetic improvement techniques are needed and, above all, they are needed now".
A vote which, for Legacoop "goes in the direction of being sustainable and finally traces a path on agricultural genetic research".
According to Fedagripesca "it is an opportunity to strengthen the competitiveness of the Italian and European agricultural sector, while guaranteeing food safety and environmental protection".
A discordant voice was that of Assobio who, on the eve of the vote, had expressed opposition because the vote "risks canceling the rules in force since 2001 for the marketing of GMOs and the national ban on cultivation".
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