European parliamentarians and member state governments of the EU announced that they reached an agreement Wednesday night into Thursday that addresses plant breeding based on novel genomic techniques (NGM) in European agriculture.

NGMs, described as “new genetically modified organisms” by their critics, allow the genome of plants to be modified, but without introducing genetic material (DNA) from different species, unlike first-generation GMOs.

Organizations representing companies or sectoral bodies in the primary sector support these techniques, to develop varieties more resistant to climate change and more resistant to weeds.