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Europe’s plant breeders disappointed about European Parliament’s vote on Nagoya implementation - Failure to address specificities of plant breeding may hamper innovation and limit practical benefit sharing on genetic resources


Brussels, Belgium
September 12, 2013

The European Parliament’s vote today on the implementation of the Nagoya protocol on access and benefit sharing for genetic resources strikes a blow to the community of users of genetic resources in Europe, and in particular to those active in the field of agriculture and plant breeding. “We are disappointed with the outcome”, comments Garlich von Essen, Secretary General of ESA. “Not enough attention has been paid to the specific nature of plant and animal breeding, despite a strong call from a large alliance of organisations from the agricultural sector and even a respective proposal from the Parliament’s own Agricultural Committee.”

Plant breeders are particularly worried about the potential effect of the EP’s vote on Europe’s well established “open source” model for the sector. Under EU law, anybody may access commercially available genetic material (plant varieties) for further research and breeding – without any restrictions or conditions. One year ago, the European Parliament strongly supported this principle of open access by introducing the so-called “breeders’ exemption” into the EU’s new unitary patent. With this vote on Nagoya, the EP has supported requirements that may significantly hinder access. “Under such conditions, European businesses will be discouraged to use such material and without access and use, there will also be no benefits to share! This will be at the expense of countries looking for income from the system and of plant breeding innovation. As usual, smaller businesses will be particularly disadvantaged”.

While ESA underlined its commitment to the objectives of the Nagoya protocol – a fair sharing of benefits for the use of genetic resources that are under the sovereignty of countries – it sees the need for rules that take into account the specific needs of plant (and animal) breeding to arrive at a balanced and workable regula-tion.

“There is still an opportunity to get things right in the further discussions with Council”, von Essen remains hopeful. “Together with our partners from the agricultural sector, we will do whatever we can to continue explaining that we are not trying to escape the system. But we need rules that take account of our specific way of working in plant and animal breeding and of the open source model that has contributed so much to innovation in agriculture in the past.”



More news from: Euroseed


Website: http://www.euroseeds.org

Published: September 17, 2013

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