Since 1990, production and use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in closed systems are subject to European law regulations. These oblige the member states to take care by national legislation that the human health and the environment are protected from harmful consequences of methods in genetic engineering. In Germany, this obligation was met for the first time in 1990 by decree of the Genetic Engineering Law (GenTG) and supplementary ordinances which, since then, are updated and developed further regularly. The standard describes the state of the art for the check of the security procedures as well as for sampling and analytics for the safe operation of genetic engineering facilities. Thus, it provides a well manageable and orienting support for the planning and implementation of a safe operation for genetic engineering facilities.