Brussels – The European Commission proposal on new GMOs, and amendments supported today by the European Parliament’s environment committee, risk violating the rights of farmers and consumers, according to new legal analysis by Greenpeace.

The proposed law does not provide sufficient protection against the contamination of crops with new GMOs, which are obtained through so-called new genomic techniques (NGTs).

Greenpeace EU GMO campaigner Eva Corral said: “Decades of progress in the EU on farmers’ rights, and protecting people’s health and the environment, should not be scrapped for the sake of biotech industry profits. Safety measures do not hinder innovation, nor do current rules that apply to GMOs. EU law does not prohibit research and development: it aims to ensure that what is developed does not breach EU citizens’ rights to health and environmental protection.”