Brussels, 11/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has been called upon to come up with something better on the proposal aiming to modernise the legislation on seeds, a text forming part of the animal and plant health package.
As anticipated (see EUROPE 11008), the agriculture committee of the European Parliament decided on Tuesday 11 February to reject (37 votes in favour, two against and one abstention) the proposal for a regulation (by the Commission) on the production and making available on the market of plant reproductive material. In summary, the political groups of the EP believe that the Commission should review its proposal and that there is not enough time between now and the European elections (in May) to work properly on this text.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Paolo De Castro (S&D, Italy), the chair of the committee on agriculture of the EP, explained that by a “very large majority”, the MEPs had rejected the Commission's text on seeds. “We will go to the plenary (for a vote) and we expect the Commission to take on board our concerns and the vote of the EP”. De Castro added that an oral question would be put to the European Commission in plenary in order to find out its position. In addition, a request for a resolution by all of the political groups has been submitted, to explain the reasons the text was thrown out.
If the Parliament should decide to reject the legislative proposal, the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, will officially ask the Commission to withdraw its text. However, the Commission will not be obliged to do so, particularly as the Council is still continuing its discussions. And if the member states adopt a position on the regulation, the Parliament would have to examine it at second reading with a great deal less margin for negotiation to change any provisions it disagrees with.
The rapporteur, Sergio Paolo Francesco Silvestris (EPP, Italy) said that the two largest political groups of the EP had realised that considerable amendment work would in no way appease the grave misgivings expressed. In addition, the lack of time left before the European elections could have “pushed us into doing poor work”. Another objection on the part of the MEPs is the aim of merging 12 separate directives into just one regulation. As the directives have been transposed by the member states, they leave the national authorities a certain amount of leeway (to take account of national specifics), whereas a regulation has to be applied uniformly across the EU. “We would have had to end up with 90 delegated acts, which is an abnormal figure for a text which aims to simplify procedures”, said Silvestris. The risk was that “too many powers will be transferred to the Commission, a body which is not the expression of democratic consensus”, he added. The EP called for a more serious impact assessment, taking account of the effects on small businesses and small producers.
“This vote will call for the examination of a resolution in plenary as soon as possible, to which the European Commission may respond by presenting either the same text, or a new one which takes account of the criticism expressed by the Parliament”, commented José Bové (Greens/EFA, France). (LC/transl.fl)