In many EU countries (e.g. in Germany) the regulation on the harmonization of seeds was viewed critically and ultimately rejected across the EU.
Actually shelved and declared a failure, the EU seed regulation has been off the table since 2014. However, the question remains whether the EU is planning new legislative changes in the direction of uniform and stricter plant variety regulations. Since the first European seed regulation was very intransparent, an EU seed regulation 2.0 may already be in the works.
What was the EU seed regulation?
In addition to the objectives in terms of content, the new seed regulation should above all ensure that only the EU regulation is legally valid in each EU country. National laws would have become invalid and should have given way to the requirements of the EU. In essence, the new regulation would have meant stricter variety registration, which would have made itself felt through more bureaucracy and more expensive variety approvals.
Old varieties in particular, which are no longer of any economic importance, would have been so threatened. Because the mandatory registration of these varieties would simply be too expensive, which is why the danger insisted that many varieties would simply disappear and only a few modern varieties were cultivated will. In addition to the impoverishment of the diversity of varieties, there were also fears that large breeding companies such as Monsanto or Bayer could further expand their monopoly position. Because small breeding companies would hardly have been able to finance the new hurdles in the approval of varieties. Although there should also be exemptions for small breeders and hobby gardeners, these were sometimes formulated more than vaguely.
European seed regulation has failed for the time being
After the proposal for a new EU seed regulation was published in May 2013, there was criticism. In addition to many environmental associations, politicians and other non-governmental organizations, many farmers also positioned themselves against the new EU-wide regulation. The campaign against the EU Seed Regulation finally bore fruit. In March 2014, the EU Commission's proposal was clearly rejected by the European Parliament with 650 to 15 votes. The regulation is off the table for the time being and the old legal situation remains.
In Germany, for example, the placing on the market of new varieties is regulated by the German Seed Ordinance and the Seed Traffic Act. Are these laws superfluous and should the variety approvals be controlled at all? We think it is entirely right to test new varieties. Because in addition to resistance, yield and better adaptation to climatic extremes, new varieties must also be safe. In a private garden it can quickly happen that a cultivated pumpkin and an ornamental pumpkin cross each other unnoticed. The newly created variety can then potentially do that again under certain circumstances deadly cucurbitacin to produce. With a commercially grown variety, you can be sure that this toxin will not be formed.
It remains to be seen whether the old laws will remain in place or whether there will be a new push by the EU Commission in the near future. We will definitely continue to follow the topic with great interest and keep you up to date.
