Science and Policymaking Archives

The new EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides recently told EURACTIV.com that her “priority is to gather more information” on gene editing. To this end, she said, "we will be preparing a study on new genomic techniques, foreseen for spring 2021”. Clearly, the design and set-up of such a study will be crucial to its outcome, writes Nina Holland.

The plant protection part of the upcoming Farm to Fork strategy should take a realistic and science-based approach that allows farmers to “explore all possible solutions”, French conservative MEP Anne Sander told EURACTIV.

The new Green Deal will have a direct impact on the ongoing negotiations about the post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as EU farmers will be asked to re-adjust the way they work to the new green objectives.

When it comes to food, EU policymakers should make science-based decisions if they want to help European their farmers tackle the “legitimate concerns” over sustainability, Sonny Perdue, the US State Secretary of Agriculture, said on Monday (27 January).

The agri-food industry and EU farmers are calling for clarity and science-based solutions to meet their objectives as part of the EU's recently announced European Green Deal. The new plans, combined with the ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy and a reformed Common …

Despite the ongoing legal uncertainty over the future of new plant breeding innovation in Europe, US agricultural company Corteva Agriscience has signed the first major deal on genome editing tools with French seed producer Vilmorin & Cie.

The EU is leading the science-based fight against climate change and it will also lead on science-based plant innovation, writes former EU Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis.

Austria is set to be the first EU country to ban glyphosate, having completed the EU’s single market notification procedure on Friday.

Tens of thousands of farmers protested in Berlin on Tuesday (26 November) against the government's new agricultural policy. They complained about increasing environmental protection requirements and falling product prices, which are increasingly damaging their business. EURACTIV Germany reports.

It is much easier for larger companies to implement new GM legislation, but it's the smaller ones that are most affected by the recent gene-editing ruling, the chair of the agriculture committee (AGRI) MEP, Norbert Lins, told EURACTIV.com at the sidelines of a recent plant breeding conference.

More than 2,500 scientists across the EU have joined forces and reached out to the EU parliament in a letter urging them to “to act on the science, and undertake a far-reaching reform of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) without delay.”

The discussion over the future of biotechnology in Europe heated up after the EU Court ruled in July last year that gene editing should, in principle, fall under the GMO Directive. We focus on the future of biotechnology in Europe, the regulatory framework of the so-called new plant-breeding techniques, as well as GMOs.

In the next five years, no alternative to glyphosate is going to “magically” appear in the market,  Dr Bob Reiter, a high-ranking official from Bayer, told EURACTIV.com, referring to the controversial herbicide that has been the subject of heated debates across Europe.

Any attempt to exclude the so-called new plant breeding techniques from the GMO legislation would deal a severe blow to consumers, farmers and processors, according to the EU organic farmers’ movement (IFOAM).

Eyeing a quick trade deal with the United States after Brexit, UK's new Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tried to revive discussions over Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).

For many years leading European food retailers have been following a strict non-GMO policy. Retailers are the parties most concerned when it comes to GMO regulation. For them, the proper implementation of the ECJ ruling is crucial, writes Heike Moldenhauer.

In an interview with EURACTIV France, French MEP and vice-chair of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group Eric Andrieu spoke about the future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and highlighted its lack of environmentally-focused provisions.

Austrian farmers hope that the European Commission will not approve a ban on weedkiller glyphosate, recently pushed forward by the government in Vienna.

The rise of Green parties in the last EU elections has raised eyebrows in Brussels, where agriculture stakeholders try to find out what is next in the debate about the future of EU farming.

The next European Parliament and Commission will have to deal with a number of important issues related to the future of the European agricultural sector.

A number of breeding companies have promised to relocate their advanced mutagenesis breeding programmes outside Europe and others will follow if nothing is done to change EU rules, Garlich von Essen, the secretary-general of the European Seed Association (ESA), told …