Towards a New Regulatory Framework for the  GM Crops in the European Union

Aware of the significant potential the nascent biotechnologies had, the actual EU was one of the first regions of the world to develop a regulatory framework for them. Back in the 1980s, the objective of Community member countries was to strengthen the standards of consensus and collaboration, and of environmental and health safety, in addition to promote an industrial sector of enormous potential. In spite of much effort, towards the end of the 1990s it was a widely accepted fact that a number of political and economic factors were blocking the development of biotechnology in Europe. From that crisis emerged what in some aspects probably is today's most comprehensive and rigorous body of regulations for biotechnology in the world.

However, the very high technical level of those regulations did not avoid a new crisis which EU institutions aim to solve with a new regulation. Thus, since March 2015, the way towards the third regulatory framework for Biotechnology in the EU is open. Will this third regulatory framework finally offer sufficient guarantees to allow a healthy and sustainable development of biotechnology in the EU?  What do we need so that "the third time will be a charm"?

This Conference opens an academic and cross-disciplinary forum, with European and non European experts, to discuss the past and the present, as well as the opening perspectives for the Genetically Modified Crops in the EU.