For the European plant breeding sector — represented in Spain by ANOVE and at European level by Euroseeds — the vote is considered decisive to ensure that agriculture has access to the full range of available technologies needed to address current and future challenges. Maintaining this commitment, the sector argues, is essential to safeguard an innovative, resilient and competitive primary sector that does not rely excessively on solutions developed outside the EU.
A differentiated regulatory approach
The agreement reached during the trilogue negotiations in December 2025 resulted in a compromise that preserves the core approach of the European Commission’s proposal, establishing a differentiated legislative framework for plant products derived from NGTs.
ANOVE has urged members of the ENVI Committee to support the text as agreed, stressing the importance of avoiding any reopening of the file that could delay its implementation. According to the organisation, the adoption of the regulation would pave the way for Spanish and European breeders and farmers to make practical use of new breeding techniques, accelerating innovation and adaptation to climate and market demands.
Risks of further delays
The plant breeding sector warns that any additional postponement in the adoption of the regulation would have serious negative consequences. European breeders and companies producing plant reproductive material would lose competitiveness, while farmers would be denied access to innovative and climate-resilient varieties. Consumers, in turn, would miss out on improved products that are already becoming available in other regions of the world.
Ultimately, the sector argues, continued delays would undermine Europe’s food security and long-term resilience.
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Antonio Villarroel, director general of ANOVE, underlined that the agreement reached at the end of 2025 marked “a decisive step in the right direction”. While acknowledging that the text does not fully reflect all the positions of the plant breeding sector, he stressed that it provides a solid basis to finally enable innovation in EU agriculture.
“Reopening the text in Parliament would generate uncertainty and delay benefits that breeders, farmers and society have been waiting for,” Villarroel said, calling on ENVI members to approve the regulation as it stands so that Europe can move forward.
The plant breeding sector has reiterated its willingness to continue working constructively with EU institutions and regulators to ensure the effective and timely implementation of the NGT Regulation, allowing its full potential to be realised for European agriculture, competitiveness and food security as soon as possible.
