On Wednesday 19 March, the MEPs on the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee adopted (30 votes in favour, 13 against and one abstention) the report by Veronika Vrecionová (ECR, Czech Republic) supporting the proposal to grant Moldova and Ukraine equivalence for field inspections and seed production for rapeseed, sunflower, soya and beet.
All the amendments tabled were rejected during the vote. The Council of the EU has already approved its position supporting the Commission’s proposal.
Initially, this equivalence project, which should enable the EU to diversify its sources of supply, had aroused some fears among parliamentarians.
But Bernard Van Goethem, from the Directorate-General for Health, reassured MEPs by highlighting a threefold level of safety in assessing the equivalence of these seeds: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) and EU. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)