Ukraine's new law on the state regulation of genetic engineering and the control of genetically modified organisms is scheduled to enter into force in September 2026, resetting the country's GMO framework as it moves toward European Union membership. Adopted in August 2023, the law runs to 12 chapters and 43 articles covering closed-system research, open-field testing, state registers, labelling, market placement, monitoring, cross-border movement, laboratories, state control and penalties.

The law distinguishes genetic engineering in closed systems — with four risk levels and declarations or permits to match — from GMOs handled in open systems, where research and testing need specific permits. It creates a State Register of genetic engineering operators, a register of open-system research permits and a State Register of GMOs, and sets out how registrations are applied for, reviewed, suspended and cancelled.

Labelling rules cover food, feed and other products, regulate the 'With GMO' and 'GMO-free' labels, and set thresholds for accidental presence that may not be lower than 0.1% or higher than 0.9% for certain products. The law also provides for a State Commission for GMO Risk Assessment, a scientific and methodological centre for GMO testing, laboratory accreditation, inspections and fines.

The transitional provisions are the sensitive part. According to the Seed Association of Ukraine's overview, cultivation of GM maize in open systems is banned indefinitely, and GM sugar beet and rapeseed for five years, except for permitted open-system research. And from the day Ukraine becomes an EU member state, the registration of every GMO not permitted in the EU is cancelled and pending applications are returned — a clause that ties regulatory planning in Ukraine directly to the EU framework.

Siuzana Grygorenko, the association's executive director, calls it a framework law whose practical worth will be decided by bylaws, procedures, competent institutions and accredited laboratories: companies and farmers need to know which products are authorised, under what conditions and with what obligations along the chain. Ukraine's seed sector, she notes, has held up under the Russian invasion, and regulatory clarity is now essential for investment, innovation and trade on its way into the European market.

Source: Seed World Europe