Dear Commissioner Gabriel,

Brussels, 8 February 2022

We are writing to ask for a dedicated EU research into the potential risks and analytical detection of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) engineered with new genetic engineering technology, such as CRISPR/Cas.

These GMOs fall within the scope of the EU’s existing GMO legislation, which aims to protect public health and the environment from any adverse effects they may cause. At the same time, they bring new challenges for the application of EU GMO legislation:

 GMOs developed with so-called genome-editing technology pose new and different risks from both conventional breeding and GMOs commercialised today.

 Existing GMO surveillance strategies are insufficient to detect the presence of these new GMOs, especially when they do not contain foreign genetic material.