In this review, current EU GMO regulations are subjected to a point-by point analysis to determine their suitability for agriculture in modern Europe. Our analysis concerns present GMO regulations as well as suggestions for possible new regulations for genome editing and New Breeding Techniques (for which no regulations presently exist). Firstly, the present GMO regulations stem from the early days of recombinant DNA and are not adapted to current scientific understanding on this subject. Scientific understanding of GMOs has changed and these regulations are now, not only unfit for their original purpose, but, the purpose itself is now no longer scientifically valid. Indeed, they defy scientific, economic, and even common, sense. A major EU regulatory preconception is that GM crops are basically different from their parent crops. Thus, the EU regulations are "process based" regulations that discriminate against GMOs simply because they are GMOs. However current scientific evidence shows a blending of classical crops and their GMO counterparts with no clear demarcation line between them. Canada has a "product based" approach and determines the safety of each new crop variety independently of the process used to obtain it. We advise that the EC re-writes it outdated regulations and moves toward such a product based approach.  Secondly, over the last few years new genomic editing techniques (sometimes called New Breeding Techniques) have evolved. These techniques are basically mutagenesis techniques that can generate genomic diversity and have vast potential for crop improvement. They are not GMO based techniques (any more than mutagenesis is a GMO technique), since in many cases no new DNA is introduced. Thus they cannot simply be lumped together with GMOs (as many anti-GMO NGOs would prefer). The EU currently has no regulations to cover these new techniques. In this review, we make suggestions as to how these new gene edited crops may be regulated. The EU is at a turning point where the wrong decision could destroy European agricultural competitively for decades to come.

中文翻译：

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旧的GMO新法规：为欧盟农作物生物技术确定新的未来。

在本次审查中，对当前的欧盟GMO法规进行了逐点分析，以确定它们是否适合现代欧洲的农业。我们的分析涉及当前的GMO法规以及有关基因组编辑和新育种技术的可能新法规的建议（目前尚无法规）。首先，目前的GMO法规源于重组DNA的早期，并不适应当前对该主题的科学理解。对转基因生物的科学理解发生了变化，这些法规现在不仅不适合其原始目的，而且目的本身在科学上已不再有效。确实，它们违背了科学，经济甚至常识。欧盟的一个主要的先入之见是，转基因作物与母体作物基本不同。因此，欧盟法规是“基于过程的”法规，仅因为它们是转基因生物而歧视转基因生物。但是，目前的科学证据表明，经典农作物与它们的转基因生物混在一起，两者之间没有明确的分界线。加拿大采用“基于产品”的方法，并独立于获取新作物的过程来确定每种新作物品种的安全性。我们建议EC重新编写其过时的法规，并朝着这种基于产品的方法发展。其次，在过去的几年中，新的基因组编辑技术（有时称为“新育种技术”）得到了发展。这些技术基本上是诱变技术，可以产生基因组多样性，并具有改善作物的巨大潜力。它们不是基于GMO的技术（诱变是一种GMO技术），因为在许多情况下没有引入新的DNA。因此，它们不能简单地与转基因生物混为一谈（就像许多反转基因的非政府组织所希望的那样）。欧盟目前没有法规涵盖这些新技术。在这篇综述中，我们对如何调控这些新的基因编辑作物提出了建议。欧盟正处于一个转折点，错误的决定可能会在未来数十年内破坏欧洲的农业竞争力。