Ahead of the meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council on 20-21 november, ECVC has sent, along with 8 organisations including seed-savers, GMO-free industry and environmental NGOs, a statement to EU agriculture ministers, alerting them on the patents that cover all new genomic techniques (new GMOs).

New GMOs are currently at the center of the debate of the Agriculture Council following the publication of a Regulation proposal by the Commission in July 2023. Even though the proposals claims that new GMOs, and especially "category 1 new genomic techniques", must be considered as conventionnal breeding, all these GMOs are covered by patents. In the absence of traceability requirement, breeders and farmers will lose their means of protection in case of accidental contamination leading to infrigement proceedings, and will face as well abusive extension of the scope of patents to conventional seeds. This proposal goes clearly against the EU obligations on farmers' rights to seeds, and will have a tremendous economic impact on the whole GMO-free farming, breeding and industry sector.