On 26/11/13 11:21, kay wrote:

'John Rye[_2_ Wrote:
;995456']Hello All

Further to my earlier post if you go to the Facebook page for Garden
Organic
UK you will find a report on a meeting between DEFRA and membersof the
UK
seed industry which admits that some of the exemptions accepted earlier
have
been removed.

Apparently there is to be a further meeting with the European seed
industry
this week, after which they are expecting to launch a major campaign.

John


I've asked the RHS about this.

Briefly:

They are worried, and do not consider it a non-issue.

They're working with DEFRA and other organisations such as the
Horticultural Trades Association and Garden Organic to make sure the
needs of the horticultural industry are covered.

They're suggesting that an already published description should suffice
in lieu of registration but this hasn't been agreed yet. They point out
even £100 fee would cause problems for small suppliers.

They suggest that we contact our MEPs.

They might also do well to understand how similar groups
have partially succeeded when confronted with similar
proposed regulations.

My (previously posted) summary is below.

Note that there are things that it was important and
useful for /individuals/ like us to do as and when
alerted by those "in the loop" ...

------------

There are very interesting parallels between these proposals
and the EASA regulation of European Airways regulations.
I have been keeping a watchful eye /on the sidelines/ on
the progress of some aspects of the EASA regulations;
people may or may not find the parallels illuminating.

The EASA regulations were drafted by people that understood
Commercial Air Transport (CAT i.e. airliners et al), but who
have very little understanding of General Aviation (GA i.e.
light aircraft, hot air balloons, gliders et al). The
resulting heavyweight cumbersome regulations were fine
for CAT, but disastrous for GA.

It took a /lot/ of hard work by /many/ people knowledgable
about GA over maybe 5 /years/ to mitigate /some/ of the worst
effects of the regulations. Standing on the sidelines and
moaning is useless. What succeeded was working within the
system plus individuals making /formal/ comments when
invited to do so. In this context "formal" means in the
comment forms on the EU website. Be prepared to read the
regulations and individually make comments; multiple
identically worded comments are treated as a single
comment.

Nonetheless, the regulations are now enacted, and will be
fully implemented in 2015. In the meantime various
organisations are having to decide how they will interpret
the regulations.

In the past couple of weeks the government and CAA have
announced they are trying to get rid of red tape; the
latest statements about how the regs will be interpreted
are specific and positive and useful. Having a private
pilot (Grant Schapps) in the centre of government has
apparently been useful.

Summary:
- the new regs will happen
- there is a chance to shape them, but it requires
long dedicated hard work by individuals
- the new government attitude might help, particularly
if you can get DEFRA onside