Germany, UK, EU GMO Laws for possible Art Installation

[Josiah Zayner]

I am not familiar with the laws for Germany, UK and just EU in general regarding importation of genetically modified plants or bacteria or Drosophila or anything. Are there laws regarding owning these things? Or just laws for research, consumption, &c. I feel like you DIYBio people would know these things.


Thanks,
     Josiah

[Cathal Garvey]

This really ought to be posted to the diybio-eu list, too. I've
cross-posted it. Sadly the website with the signup information has been
down for a while, hopefully someone will post the email address for
subscriptions to the US list.

EU laws on GM are generally based on a directive that sums up loosely to
the following:
* It's illegal to create or own GMOs of any kind without a license for
"contained use" unless they have been cleared for "release", where
"release" includes agricultural or domestic use.
* Contained use requires issuing a request and a risk assessment to the
relevant authority in your country, plus whatever other information they
want. They can reject your application without refund for any number of
specified or entirely arbitrary reasons.
* Failing to contain stuff after receiving a license to have it carries
liabilities that vary by country, often including potential prison
sentences.

In Ireland, things are fairly close to reasonable; you apply to the EPA,
you pay a fee of ~250e, you give details on you, your containment
facilities, your biosafety committee, your SOPs and the first GM
organism you mean to create or contain. If you pass muster, you
thereafter issue risk assessments for each new GMO but otherwise get on
with it.

In the UK things are similar but more stringent. In Germany I gather
things are outright prohibitionist.

On 29/07/14 20:45, Josiah Zayner wrote:
> I am not familiar with the laws for Germany, UK and just EU in general
> regarding importation of genetically modified plants or bacteria or

> *Drosophila* or anything. Are there laws regarding owning these things? Or

> just laws for research, consumption, &c. I feel like you DIYBio people
> would know these things.
>
>
> Thanks,
> Josiah
>

--
T: @onetruecathal, @IndieBBDNA
P: +353876363185
W: http://indiebiotech.com

[Pieter]

Cathal is right, the implementation of the EU directive differs country by country. In The Netherlands all applications are for free, but for a contained use permit you need several (local environmental and infrastructure; national GM permit). Application handling time can easily take 6 months, especially when it's about environmental release. You also need to contract a Biosafety Officer, that is not actually involved in the experiments. So it needs to be a desperate natural person. The BSO needs to be recognized and registered by the ministry too. Once the permits are granted for a specific insert, vector and host, permission for experiments with components in a similar risk class of either of these is granted upon notification to the national GM bureau by the BSO.
There are also strict rules for shipping of live GM organisms. It is better to just ship the DNA.