After more than two years of negotiations, COREPER today endorsed the Council’s common position on the production and marketing of plant reproductive material (PRM) regulation. While IFOAM Organics Europe recognises progress in some areas, the organisation remains highly concerned about several provisions that risk undermining agrobiodiversity and urges policymakers to address them during the Trilogue negotiations.
“Although the Council made useful steps forward, such as removing the extension of mandatory VSCU testing to vegetables and fruits and excluding organic heterogeneous material from the scope, the text still contains significant shortcomings that could reduce the diversity of cultivars available to farmers and concentrate the seed market in the hands of a few big actors”, said Jan Plagge, President of IFOAM Organics Europe.
The organic sector stresses the crucial importance of conservation and local varieties for organic farmers and breeders, and opposes the new restrictions made by the Council. “It is difficult to understand why the Council restricted local varieties to only fruits and vegetables and limited them geographically. Much work is ongoing on arable local varieties across Europe, and it is essential that the legal framework allows their registration and marketing”, he added.
The organic movement also warns that the deletion of the reference to assessing uniformity through off-type, as long as adapted testing protocols have not yet been adopted, could undermine the registration of organic varieties. Ensuring an appropriate and workable registration process for organic varieties – characterised by higher genetic and phenotypic diversity – is essential for the development of the organic sector.
IFOAM Organics Europe also acknowledges the Council’s decision to keep Article 30 on farmers’ exchanges of PRM, but regrets that the provisions remain extremely restrictive, allowing only exchanges in kind, in small quantities and at local level. “Farmers’ exchanges of PRM are fundamental and should be facilitated – not restricted. We call on policymakers to follow the European Parliament’s approach, which, although not perfect, would provide a more workable system for farmers”, said Eduardo Cuoco, Director of IFOAM Organics Europe.
Finally, the space granted to conservation networks must be broadened. “The Council position remains too restrictive for networks and organisations involved in the conservation and dynamic management of genetic diversity. Their role is essential to maintain and enhance diversity in European fields and must be facilitated, not hindered”, said Eric Gall, Deputy Director of IFOAM Organics Europe. “Finally, administrative rules for small seed producers must be proportionate so that they can continue to operate and thus ensure diversity in the seed market”, he concluded.
- Further information available at www.organicseurope.bio
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