The European Parliament has given its final approval to the regulation on plants obtained through new genomic techniques (NGTs).
Following the vote on 17 June, the regulation would now proceed to signature and publication in the European Union (EU) Official Journal, a statement on the Parliament’s official website said that day.
This would be followed by a two-year implementation period, during which the European Commission (EC) would develop the necessary secondary legislation and implementing acts.
Commenting on the vote, Rapporteur Jessica Polfjärd said: “European farmers have long been calling for access to these modern breeding tools, to help them develop crops that are more resilient and less dependent on pesticides.”
Provisionally agreed between Parliament and the European Council in December 2025, the amended NGT rules established two regulatory pathways based on a plant’s equivalence to varieties bred by conventional methods. The rules would apply to plants of European origin and also to imports.
Category 1 plants – deemed equivalent to conventionally bred varieties – would follow a simplified regulatory pathway, while Category 2 plants would remain subject to the existing genetically modified organism (GMO) framework.
The regulation was expected to provide greater regulatory predictability, promote innovation and open new market opportunities for NGT-derived crop varieties, bringing the EU in line with regulatory approaches adopted in other major agricultural markets, according to a US Department of Agriculture (USDA) report on 17 June.
Until the new rules became applicable, NGT plants would continue to be regulated under the existing GMO framework, the USDA said.
