EU heading towards gene-editing reform, Finnish minister suggests

Genetically manipulated crops “needed” to improve food security, but only with strict monitoring, minister says

More European countries are likely to follow the UK in making it easier for researchers to genetically manipulate crops to help them achieve their food-security goals, but clearer regulatory guidelines are needed first, Finland’s minister for agriculture and forestry has said.

The EU has strict rules on genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and in 2018 its top court ruled that modern gene-editing techniques fall under the scope of the bloc’s decades-old laws on older gene-modification methods. Many researchers and companies have warned that this could push genetics R&D outside of Europe. The EU’s political institutions have begun looking at how the laws could be changed, and the UK announced in September that it would relax rules around R&D on plant gene editing.