Plant Reproductive Material Proposals Rejected

The European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee has voted against
controversial proposed EU legislation on plant reproductive material (PRM).

CIMG1174 (600px * 450px)MEPs rejected the European Commission’s planned
seed regulation by 37 votes to two due to fears that it would hand the
Commission too much power and that individual countries would be given
no room to adapt the rules to meet their needs.

Agriculture Committee Chair Paolo De Castro commented: “We are worried
that merging 12 directives into one directly applicable regulation would
offer member states no room for manoeuvre to adapt the proposed rules to
their needs, while the high number of delegated acts would give the
Commission excessively wide powers, especially over heterogeneous
material and niche markets.”

The proposed legislation had caused widespread concern amongst industry
bodies in the UK, including Plant Heritage and the Royal Horticultural
Society, as it would require all plant varieties to be listed on an
official register, a move that would arguably threaten the future of
many smaller nurseries and National Collection Holders.

Of the 52,000 plants currently listed on the RHS’s ‘Plant Finder’
database, only 2,000 would have an officially-registered description
that would satisfy the criteria of the proposals.

After its rejection in the Agriculture Committee, the plans will be
scrutinised by the European Parliament as a whole at one of its
forthcoming plenary sessions.

Plant Import Rules To Be Tightened?



In related news, the Agriculture Committee also vowed to tighten rules
on importing plants into the EU to minimise the risk of pests and
diseases. MEPs are keen to establish a ‘positive list of countries and
products that do not pose an unacceptable danger’, while non-EU
countries wishing to export plants will be subject to strict tests, such
as on-the-spot audits, by the European Commission.