Munich

The Swiss parliament last week passed a law setting some of the world's toughest restrictions on the conduct of trials of genetically modified crops.

The bill, which was passed on 2 October, allows trials of transgenic crops to be carried out, but only if they can jump through a set of strict regulatory hoops. It was nonetheless greeted as a qualified success by Switzerland's large agricultural biotechnology industry, which hopes that the law will end a de facto moratorium on such trials. But the legislation must still be debated in the Swiss second chamber and could yet be challenged in a referendum.

The new law, known as Gen-Lex, was conceived by the Swiss government to draw the sting from environmentalists' attempts in a 1998 referendum to outlaw all such trials. The referendum, which failed by a narrow majority, would have banned field trials of genetically modified crops, as well as the creation of transgenic animals (see Nature 393, 507; 199810.1038/31077).

If confirmed, the new law will require applicants to prove that their research cannot be carried out under laboratory conditions and that, if released, the crops are unlikely to cross-pollinate non-transgenic plants or otherwise contaminate the environment. All trials must also include a research component on the biosafety of the experiments.

Almost 200 researchers had signed a plea asking for a more research-friendly law. But despite the tight restrictions, they will be relieved to at last have a realistic prospect of carrying out field trials. The lack of trials had threatened to cut off Swiss researchers from new developments in molecular plant research and botany, they say.

“The bill sets very high hurdles for the approval of transgenic plant releases, but it could have been worse,” says Daniel Schümperli of the Institute of Cell Biology at the University of Bern, and chair of the Swiss Academy of Sciences' forum on genetic engineering. A step-by-step approach, he says, similar to the phases of clinical trials, should allow plant scientists to meet the requirements and minimize the environmental risks associated with field trials of transgenic crops.

The biotechnology industry also welcomed the bill's passage. “The small Swiss market is not our main concern,” explains Arthur Einsele, a spokesman for Syngenta, one of the world's largest agricultural biotechnology companies, whose headquarters are in Basel. “But a moratorium would have been a very bad signal for the European Union. We have an interest in our headquarters being based in a country with a positive research climate.”

But Switzerland remains deeply divided over the issue of agricultural biotechnology. The law could be modified by the second chamber of parliament, and environmental groups have said they will attempt to call a referendum if any more concessions are made to facilitate field trials.