Today and tomorrow (April 4-5, 2016) ESA is organising a workshop entitled "How to act under the EU ABS regulation implementing the Nagoya Protocol?" in Brussels. The workshop aims at providing participants from ESA membership the possibility to discuss and get clarifications on how to implement the EU ABS (access and benefit-sharing) Regulation.

 

Since October 12, 2015 the whole of the EU ABS Regulation (511/2014) is indeed in force. However, there are still some areas of uncertainty and more and more EU Member States are adopting national rules to enable the implementation of the EU Regulation.

 

The workshop features presentations from two Member States, outlining their respective approaches, a roundtable discussions, including a representative from the European Commission, and also group discussions to adress concrete cases and questions.

 

The aim of the workshop is finally to provide companies in Europe with assistance to real situations and finalise the recommendations developed by the ESA WG Biodiversity: a step-by-step approach on how to follow the rules of the EU ABS Regulation.