EU Parliament gives the green light to new genomic techniques. Guarda (Greens): “Do we want farmers to be free or dependent on multinationals?”

Strasbourg, by our correspondent – The two-track system, intended to promote crops resilient to climate crises and sparking considerable controversy amongst the Greens, has been approved. Today (17 June), the European Parliament, meeting in plenary session, has definitively adopted the new regulation on new genomic techniques (NGT), ratifying the agreement already reached with the Council in December 2025. The reform aims to “facilitate access to plant varieties better able to withstand climate crises and pests, while ensuring higher yields and a drastic reduction in the use of chemical pesticides.” 

The new regulatory framework divides seeds into two distinct categories: NGT-1 plants, i.e. those with limited modifications that are similar to varieties obtainable by conventional methods and therefore treated as traditional seeds, and NGT-2 plants, which have more complex genetic modifications and are therefore subject to current legislation on GMOs, including the obligation for risk assessment and prior authorisation. Although NGT-1 products are treated as equivalent to conventional ones, Parliament has imposed a labelling requirement for seed packets and the inclusion of such seeds in a public database to enable farmers to make informed choices. With regard to intellectual property, the regulation permits patenting of these technologies but introduces safeguards to ensure that farmers retain the right to save and replant seeds at fair prices. 

The rapporteur for the measure, the Swedish MEP from the European People’s Party (EPP), Jessica Polfjärd, welcomed the outcome, describing it as a “historic victory for the future of Europe and for European farmers, who now have modern breeding tools to develop more resilient crops that are less dependent on pesticides.” According to the Swedish MEP, with this decision the Parliament has chosen the path of progress: “By approving the use of NGTs, we have chosen innovation, competitiveness and food security.” 

A contrasting view is taken by Green MEP Cristina Guarda, whose main concern is the risk of dependence on multinationals. Guarda, a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture, spoke at a press conference organised by the European University Radio Network, Europhonica, and expressed concern about a strategy which, in her view, lacks a solid foundation: “We are approving and banking on a strategy to solve the problems facing agriculture without knowing whether this will truly be a long-term solution.” 

One of the most contentious issues concerns the “excessive power” of the sector’s major companies. The MEP pointed out that 60 per cent of seeds are already in the hands of a handful of global players and asked: “Do we want to give farmers greater freedom to manage their own businesses and reduce production costs, or do we want to make them more dependent on the large multinationals that call the shots?” 

Guarda also raised doubts about the very effectiveness of NGTs, pointing out that, at present, those authorised globally offer only organoleptic improvements—properties of a substance that can only be perceived and assessed by the senses—but do not respond to water stress or field diseases, such as downy mildew and powdery mildew. On the legal front, she warned that the patent system could expose farmers to legal disputes in the event of accidental contamination: “The risk is that, as a farmer, I might find myself with a variety similar to theirs tomorrow, and as a result I would also have to answer to them from a legal point of view.” 

In concluding her speech, she urged the audience not to forget the natural solutions that already exist, such as the Leonicus grape variety, described as “extremely resistant to water stress and even to downy mildew.” 

The vote on the measure was accompanied by a demonstration organised by a coalition of farmers, livestock farmers, environmentalists, and members of the public, which, yesterday morning (16 June), gathered in front of the Strasbourg chamber to call for the measure to be rejected. The protesters, including several Italian organisations such as Slow Food, Greenpeace and the Centro Internazionale Crocevia, expressed grave concern over a reform that “undermines the rights of farmers and citizens to produce and consume GMO-free products, and which will seriously jeopardise organic and conventional non-GMO supply chains, causing irreversible damage to the economy, agriculture, public health, and the environment, while completely misleading the public.”