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Legislative proposal on the production and marketing of plant reproductive material (PRM): state of play and unresolved issues

14 October 2024

When the European Commission published the proposal on PRM marketing in July 2023, the European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC), which represents 31 European peasant farmers’ organisations, called for the proposal to be rejected. Indeed, the text as it stands constitutes a clear threat to farmers’ rights on seeds, and in particular to several fundamental rights recognised at national and European level, such as the right to exchange seeds between farmers.

Moreover, this proposal must be analysed in the light of the rest of European law, and in particular, the rules on patent and plant breeders’ rights, as well as the proposal to deregulate GMOs obtained by “new genomic techniques” (NGTs). This proposal is currently at a standstill in the Council negotiations, in particular because of concerns related to the issue of patents on plants obtained by NGTs. For ECVC, the issue of patents on GMOs/NGTs should not be ignored in the context of the PRM proposal, since any release of GMOs obtained by NGTs, moreover patented and not traced, would have significant consequences on PRM marketing, with the entry of hidden patents on the market and in farmers’ fields.

This document aims to take stock of the state of negotiations on this proposal and to analyse the links between this reform and the proposal for the deregulation of GMOs obtained by NGTs, as well as to highlight the incompatibilities of this proposal with farmers’ rights on seeds and the EU’s international obligations.

This document details the unresolved issues that pose a threat to peasant agriculture and peasants’ rights, but also to the entire GMO-free agricultural sector, to the diversity of the European seed sector, and to agrobiodiversity. These questions are accompanied by suggestions of amendments in annex, which relate to essential changes without which this text will constitute a serious threat to farmers’ rights.

We call on policy-makers, and in particular at this stage of the negotiations, the Council of Agriculture Ministers, to address these unresolved issues.

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Position - EN

Amendments proposal - EN

Position - FR

Proposition d'amendements - FR

Posición - ES