The Biosafety Clearing-House (BCH) serves as a central instrument of the Cartagena Protocol. In this database, the Parties enter information on their genetic engineering regulations and publish which genetically modified organisms (GMO) may be released into the environment under which conditions. Also of particular importance are the contact details of the competent institutions and authorities in the Parties. In Germany, the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) is the competent national authority. The BCH's central platform is available at http://bch.cbd.int/.

The BVL has its own German website on the Cartagena Protocol. The German BCH (D-BCH) is part of the globally networked BCH. You can find it at http://www.biosicherheit-bch.de. Here, we compile all information relevant to Germany on the subject of genetic engineering and the Cartagena Protocol.

This includes, in particular, data from the national contact points, a presentation of how the legal bases at national, EU and international law levels are interwoven, and decisions on the handling of GMO in Germany that are relevant to the Cartagena Protocol. In addition to the D-BCH, the BVL has developed the EUginius database together with its Dutch cooperation partner Wageningen Food Safety Research (WFSR).

EUginius compiles information on the molecular description and relevant detection methods of GMO. Thus, EUginius provides a spectrum of data that is also of interest to the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol. The international BCH and EUginius have therefore started a cooperation and are linked to each other. EUginius can be found under the link https://euginius.eu.