BT-Drs. amending the GenTG has been available since 11 November 2015 – Releases

Directive (EU) 2015/412 amending the Deliberate Release Directive was published in March (see AGCT-Gentechnik.report 03/2015 ). Since then, the federal government and the states have been wrangling over how to implement this amending directive. Now, with BT-DRS 18/6664, there is a coordinated draft for the first time, which has at least passed the cabinet hurdles. With regard to deliberate releases, the position previously held by the states that the federal government should be responsible for designating areas to be kept free of genetic engineering has prevailed. If, therefore, a company insists on a deliberate release in Germany as part of an approval procedure, the draft states will be responsible for the designation after receiving an opinion from the states. The criteria under which an area can be kept free of genetic engineering are defined in more detail in Section 16f of the GenTG-E. Thus, at least within the framework of this draft law, the states have ultimately prevailed with their view that the federal government is responsible for designating areas that are to be kept free of genetic engineering.

This publication can also be found on the website of the law firm Dr. Kauch .