ProSpecieRara
PSR
ProSpecieRara is a foundation for the protection and promotion of the genetical and cultural diversity of cultivated plants (plant genetic resources) and rare breeds.
ID: 27731914123-85
Lobbying Activity
Response to Evaluation of the EU legislation on plant variety rights
14 Mar 2025
Call for evidence EU PVP ; Input by APBREBES and ProSpecieRara 30 years have passed since the adoption of Council Regulation (EC) No 2100/94 of 27 July 1994 on Community plant variety rights. In particular, the debate on Farmers' Rights has evolved considerably during this period (ITPGRFA, UNDROP). These new international agreements now need to be incorporated into a revised plant variety protection legislation, which also needs to better support breeding work done by farmers. - The right to seeds as enshrined in UNDROP must be part of the review of Regulation 2100/94. According to Article 19 1. « Peasants and other people working in rural areas have the right to seeds, including: (d) The right to save, use, exchange and sell their farm-saved seed or propagating material ». and according Article 19.8. « States shall ensure that seed policies, plant variety protection and other intellectual property laws, [] respect and take into account the rights, needs and realities of peasants and other people working in rural areas ». In international law, in accordance with the UN Charter, international human rights instruments take precedence in the hierarchy of norms over other international instruments, such as those protecting IPR (for more information see Annex 1 The Right to Seeds in Europe / Geneva Academy). For the implementation of Art. 19, the European PVP system must allow farm-saved seed and propagating material for all plant species and peasants must be excluded from payments for farm-saved seed and propagating material. It is important to note that other parties to UPOV 91, such as Switzerland or the USA, do not require payments for farm-saved seed. - In a revised PVP Regulation the term « acts done privately and for non-commercial purposes » needs to be clearly defined in order to allow and support smallholder farmers the full enjoyment of their right to save, exchange and sell farm-saved seed, including seed of protected varieties. It is important to note that the European seed industry (Euroseeds and Plantum) has submitted such a proposal for discussion at UPOV (for more information see https://sdhsprogram.org/upov_exception_smallholderfarmers/ ). - In order to protect existing exceptions and the so-called farmer's privilege from diverging contractual arrangements, EU plant variety rights legislation needs an analogous clause to the one that already exists in Switzerland: Article 8 of the Swiss federal plant variety protection law: «Any agreement which restricts or annuls the exceptions to the right to protection for the varieties referred to in Art. 6 [Breeders and research exemption. Exemption on private and non-commercial use] and 7 [farmers privilege] shall be deemed to be null and void». The article safeguards existing provision of the PVP law. It implies that the provisions in this regard, that are included in some private contracts in use on the international seed market, do not apply in Switzerland. - A revised pvp regulation needs to support breeding for varieties which do not fit with the current DUS definition. In continuation of the European Regulation 2018/848 (Biological Varieties Adapted for Organic Production (VBAPB) the DUS test to receive a plant breeders rights for organic varieties needs to adapted. In addition it needs to clarfied that the definition of essentially bred varieties does not include selection breeding by farmers. This is important for the adaptation of varieties to local circumstances. - In the evaluation, it will be crucial not to interpret existing statistics one-sidedly. It is wrong to equate the contribution to Europe's economy of plant breeding protected by CPVRs with the contribution of the Community Plant Variety Right (as has been done by CPVO - EUIPO, 2022). This is because it is simply unknown how many of the plants protected by a plant variety right today would exist without or with a differ
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