Brussels, 26/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - Poland is to be referred to the Court of Justice of the EU for its persistent failure to meet its legal obligations with regard to protection of biodiversity. This decision was announced by the European Commission on 26 January among the monthly package of infringement procedures. The Commission argues that Poland has not properly transposed Directive 2009/145/EC on conservation varieties of vegetable seeds into national law, when the deadline for so doing was 31 December 2010.
Biodiversity and the conservation of vegetable seed varieties which have been traditionally grown in specific regions are threatened by genetic erosion. The directive, therefore, provides for a simplified mechanism which allows for a more flexible system on the testing, inspection, and registration of vegetable seed varieties that are not intended for the mass commercial market than for vegetable seeds for intensive agricultural production.
Poland's failure to transpose the directive means that these “old” vegetable seed varieties will not be subject to the simplified marketing procedures and will not be marketed and sold in Poland. Despite receiving a reasoned opinion (third stage of the infringement procedure) in June of last year, Poland has not yet complied with this directive. The Commission decided, then, to move to the next stage in the procedure and refer the matter to the Court of Justice. (AN/transl.rt)