European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture will adopt its position on the proposal modernising the rules for the production and marketing of plant reproductive material on 19 March.
The European Parliament plenary vote is scheduled for April (22-25) and negotiations with the Member States will take place during the next mandate.
Ahead of the vote, the political groups are divided over the rules to be applied to plant reproductive material (PRM) marketed by conservation networks. Despite the numerous derogations provided for by the European Commission for this material, the rapporteur, Herbert Dorfmann (EPP, Italian), suggested, with the support of the S&D, Greens/EFA and The Left groups, the introduction of an annex with maximum quantities of seeds that would fall outside the scope of the minimum rules applied to these networks (controls on certain harmful organisms, obligation to keep a register). However, this compromise is not supported by the Renew Europe, ECR and ID groups, which fear a large parallel market in seeds exempt from the standards guaranteeing satisfactory quality, with an increased risk of distortion of competition and fraudulent practices.
With regard to seed exchange in kind between farmers, compromise amendments by MEPs establish the possibility of providing for financial compensation for these operations. However, MEPs are divided on whether to review the current rules (free exchanges).
On the subject of sustainability criteria, a compromise accepted by all the political groups provides for a transitional period of 13 years before fruit and vegetables may be subject to the new criteria of ‘cultural value and sustainable use’, following an assessment report by the European Commission (see EUROPE 13239/11). For the moment, only cereals, wine and potatoes are subject to crop value criteria (agronomic benefits to be proven). The Commission is proposing to subject all sectors to the new sustainability criteria, but the fruit and vegetable sector is concerned about the high costs of the new requirements.
The European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment has exclusive powers over provisions concerning GMOs and new genomic techniques, and shared powers over seed sustainability criteria.
The political groups have also reached compromise amendments on the proposal concerning forest reproductive material. The European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture will also adopt its position on this proposal, which complements the one on plant reproductive material (see EUROPE 13216/2), on 19 March. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)