{"id":2757,"date":"2021-06-09T18:05:37","date_gmt":"2021-06-09T16:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stop-genedrives.eu\/?p=2757"},"modified":"2021-06-15T15:39:49","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T13:39:49","slug":"european-parliament-calls-for-ban-on-gene-drive-technology-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stop-genedrives.eu\/en\/european-parliament-calls-for-ban-on-gene-drive-technology-2\/","title":{"rendered":"European Parliament calls for ban on gene drive technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

Report on the EU’ Biodiversity Strategy for 2030: <\/span><\/span>Precaution prevails <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

<\/span>9.06.2021, Berlin <\/span>–<\/span>The European Parliament <\/span>yesterday <\/span>confirmed<\/span> it\u2018s precautionary stance <\/span>towards <\/span>the use of a new genetic engineering <\/span>technology <\/span>called gene drive<\/span>.[i]<\/a> In it\u00b4s report on the <\/span>EU\u2019s Biodiversity Strategy <\/span>for 2030<\/span>, <\/span>adopted <\/span>at <\/span>the European Parliament\u2019s p<\/span>lenary on <\/span>08.06.2021<\/span>, <\/span>Parliamentarians demand that <\/span>\u201e<\/span>no releases of <\/span>genetically engineered gene drive <\/span>organisms should be allowed, including for nature conservation purposes, in line with the <\/span>precautionary principle<\/span>.\u201c <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mareike Imken, c<\/strong>oordinator of the European Stop Gene Drive Campaign welcomes this <\/span>decision <\/span>and <\/span>comments<\/span>:<\/span><\/strong>\u201e<\/span>With its position today, <\/span>the European Parliament <\/span>recognizes that <\/span>this technology raises a series of scientific, regulatory, societal and ethical questions and <\/span>concerns. As its use could <\/span>severely <\/span>harm biodiversity, <\/span>the European Parliament <\/span>call<\/span>s <\/span>to <\/span>postpone any environmental releases until these questions have been addressed <\/span>and settled<\/span>. <\/span>This is an important message <\/span>that should feed into the <\/span>ongoing discussions <\/span>about global <\/span>regulations <\/span>at <\/span>the <\/span>next meeting of the International Union <\/span>for Conservation <\/span>of Nature <\/span>(<\/span>IUCN<\/span>) <\/span>in <\/span>September in Marseille <\/span>and those <\/span>of <\/span>the Convention on Biological Diversity <\/span>in <\/span>October <\/span>in <\/span>Kunming, China<\/span>.\u201c<\/span><\/p>\n

27<\/span>civil <\/span>society and science organizations from across the EU <\/span>had <\/span>sent a <\/span>letter to Parliamentarians <\/span>in support of the amendment ahead of the vote<\/span>. It <\/span>\u201e<\/span>provides <\/span>reasonable suggestions on how to <\/span>implement the European Parliament\u2019s previous position <\/span>in its resolution on the 15th meeting of <\/span>the Conference of Parties (COP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (<\/a><\/span><\/span>2019\/2824(RSP<\/a>)<\/span><\/span>\u201c.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In that previous position<\/span>, adopted in January 2020, <\/span>the European Parliament had <\/span>called <\/span>\u201c<\/span>on the <\/span>Commission and the Member States to call for <\/span>a global <\/span>moratorium at the COP15 on releases of <\/span>gene drive organisms into nature, including field trials, <\/span>in order to prevent these new technologies <\/span>from being released prematurely and to <\/span>uphold the precautionary principle<\/span>, which is enshrined in <\/span>the Treaty on the F<\/span>unctioning of the European Union as well as the CBD<\/span>\u201c<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Background <\/span>information:<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Text adopted <\/span>in the report on the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030: Bringing nature <\/span>back into our lives (<\/span><\/span>2020\/2273(INI)<\/span><\/span>)<\/span>:<\/span><\/span><\/strong>[ii]<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The European Parliament,<\/p>\n

<\/span>148. \u201c<\/span>Is concerned about the new leg<\/span>al, environmental, biosafety and governance challenges <\/span>that might arise from the release of genetically engineered gene drive organisms into the <\/span>environment, including for nature conservation purposes; acknowledges the outcome of the <\/span>Ad Hoc Technical Exper<\/span>t Group of the Convention on Biological Diversity on gene drives and <\/span>living modified fish<\/span><\/a>, which raises concerns about the difficulties of predicting their behavior, <\/span>assessing their risks and controlling them after release; notes that gene drive organ<\/span>isms could <\/span>become invasive species in themselves; considers that global and EU<\/span>–<\/span>level risk assessment <\/span>guidance materials, tools and an environmental monitoring framework, as well as clear global <\/span>governance and effective mechanisms for controlling and revers<\/span>ing the effects of gene drive <\/span>organisms, should be fully developed, and that additional research is required on the health, <\/span>environmental, ecological, ethical and other implications of gene drive organisms to better <\/span>understand their potential impact; consi<\/span>ders therefore that no releases of genetically <\/span>engineered gene drive organisms should be allowed, including for nature conservation <\/span>purposes, in line with the precautionary principle <\/span>; \u201c.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

—————
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Download the press release here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Letter to MEPs by civil society organisations prior to the vote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Report on the preceeding interactive online roundtable hosted by all rapporteurs to the European Parliament’s own intiative report on the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy, of 8th December 2020: Genetic engineering of wild species. Protection or destruction of nature?<\/a><\/p>\n

[i]<\/a> <\/span>V<\/span>oting <\/span>results and <\/span>margins <\/span>for EU Biodiversity Strategy<\/span><\/a>
\n<\/span><\/span>[ii] Report on the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030: Bringing nature back into our lives<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In their report on the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, which was adopted in the plenary of the European Parliament on 08.06.2021, the parliamentarians demand that “in line with the precautionary principle, no releases of genetically modified gene drive organisms should be allowed, not even for nature conservation purposes.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[15,16],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"","source_text":"","source_url":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stop-genedrives.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2757"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stop-genedrives.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stop-genedrives.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stop-genedrives.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stop-genedrives.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2757"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.stop-genedrives.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2776,"href":"https:\/\/www.stop-genedrives.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2757\/revisions\/2776"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stop-genedrives.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stop-genedrives.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stop-genedrives.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stop-genedrives.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}