The Netherlands once again expressed concern, on Monday 18 March in Brussels, at the Agriculture Council, about the granting of patents to plant varieties resulting from conventional breeding techniques (see EUROPE 12179/37).
Many Agriculture Ministers (including those of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Portugal, Belgium, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Estonia) supported the Dutch delegation's concerns.
At a public hearing on 5 December 2018, the Technical Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) paved the way for the granting of a patent on pepper seeds obtained mainly by conventional breeding processes.
However, in June 2017, under pressure from the European institutions, the EPO adopted an amendment to its regulations to exclude plants obtained by essentially biological selection processes from patentability.
The Dutch delegation recalled its support for the interpretative opinion issued by the European Commission in November 2016, which clarified that products derived from the use of essentially biological processes should not be patentable, and asked the Commission and other Member States to continue to defend this interpretation, both within the European Union and within the EPO.
The European Commissioner for the Environment, Karmenu Vella, said that the EPO's decision compromised what ministers and MEPs had already decided. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)