Brussels, Belgium
April 16, 2014

While the European Parliament adopted its formal position on the proposed revision of the official controls scheme of the EU in plenary this week, it seemed to deliberately leave important elements of the Commission's approach open for discussion in its upcoming new term after the elections.

Despite the joint call of a broad alliance of food chain operators to include all plant material into the new control framework (which aims at aligning and harmonising control practices by Member States), the EP left seed out of the scope of its adopted text.

"We regret that the Parliament did not include the very starting point of all food production, the seed, in its proposal for an improved system of official controls", Garlich v. Essen, Secretary General of the European Seed Association (ESA) commented on the vote. ESA, together with a number of other food chain associations, had argued that it would be most efficient to start improving controls at the very beginning of the production chain rather than at later stages of processing or final food products.

"It might well be that the call of the EP for a revised proposal for the seed marketing legislation is the reason for this." v. Essen supposed. "MEPs may have thought that everything in relation to seed should be addressed together rather than separately."

The seed sector therefore hopes that the issue will be back on the agenda of the new Parliament when it will continue the discussion of a modernised seed law on the base of a new text.

"The legislative package is titled 'Smarter Rules for Safer Food' - and it would not be smart to exclude seed from its final scope. All food starts with seed. We are therefore certain that in the end, seed will be part of an efficient and effective control system of EU and Member States."
 

Website: http://www.euroseeds.org

Published: April 16, 2014