Faktablad om yttrandet 

In line with concerns expressed in the CoR opinion, the European Parliament decided to reject the Commission proposal for Regulation on the production and making available on the market of plant reproductive material (plant reproductive material law) COM(2013) 262 and asked the Commision to submit a new proposal.

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS



- is concerned about the fact, acknowledged in the report, that the Community programme, which has developed over the years, has failed to prevent a "continued loss of agricultural biodiversity";

- stresses the need for an about turn in the relationship between research and use, so that the scientific research depends on the specific needs of farmers;

- calls on the Commission to mobilise resources to make the operational information and the work of the focus group on genetic resources more widely available;

- points out that the beneficiaries of the Community programme on the conservation, collection, characterisation and utilisation of genetic resources in agriculture were mainly research institutes and that it is now necessary to encourage wider participation of end-users in the new programme;

- requests that the new proposal for a regulation on the production and making available on the market of plant reproductive material provide for proper support to small and medium-sized producers and users of old, rare and traditional varieties and "niche" varieties, which make up a significant share of the genetic diversity of cultivated plant species;

- requests that the new proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the production and making available on the market of plant reproductive material allow for organic seed to be certified on the basis of criteria adapted to organic production, thereby allowing the development of plants according to the environment and the evolution of strains and populations.