Ms Susan Fleming:

I will come in on that issue. The first question was whether our stance would have been different if NGTs were included in that Government decision. NGTs are GMOs. The 2018 ruling of the European Court of Justice clarified that situation. It was a clarification based on a request from France because there was confusion regarding whether they should be treated as GMOs. There was certainly no means of identifying them as GMOs and that would cause significant problems in the context of the current legislation so there had to be clarification. The clarification from the ECJ was black and white. It ruled that these are GMOs and are to be treated as such within the current GMO legislation. That clarified the situation but it did not help because there is no way of identifying these new breeding techniques as GMOs. It is clear the science is such that these new breeding techniques are not as sensitive or dangerous to the environment as more commonplace GMOs. The Commission has been seeking a more light-handed regulation to be put in place to treat new breeding techniques and get around those difficulties.

As regards the position of Ireland, they are GMOs. They were not GMOs prior to the 2018 ruling but Ireland did acknowledge that if there was no way for us to identify these or treat them within the EU regulatory system, it was a problem. That is the position we put back to Europe.