The European Commission formally published the announcement of the withdrawal of the seed law proposal today. This is good news. This means it cannot come back without a new public consultation and a new redrafting of the proposal, which would likely take a year or more.
Vandana Shiva’s 2015 New Year Message
We Are All Seeds
EU Commission Abandons Current EU Seed Law Proposal
The EU Commission announced yesterday their intention to abandon the proposed new seed law regulation. This means short of a specific request from the EU Parliament for a return of the proposal, it’s unlikely to resurface. This leaves some uncertainty, but it seems likely the proposed regulation is now dead. Here is the announcement and Annex II, the so-called ‘kill list’.
The EU Commission probably now has to come up with another proposal. For the time being, it leaves the existing EU seed law directives unchanged. Since there is pressure for returning decision making to national governments, and reducing administrative burden, there is hope that a new proposal will go much further towards a straightforward repeal of existing seed laws rather than just a simple rebranding and otherwise strengthening of industry control.
Parliament
The EU Commission informally consulted the Parliament before this decision was taken. The answer back was very unclear, and did not indicate a clear preference one way or another. Some independent and informal polling of MEPs suggests quite a lot of disagreement between the different factions. The chances are it will be more of a fight to stop the proposal the next time around, and the situation will be more complicated.
Kokopelli Wins Baumaux Civil Case, But EU Seed Law Upheld
In a case that’s now been going on for 10 years, a French appeals court finally decided for Kokopelli in the matter of civil damages. This is according to a mail sent to Kokopelli’s newsletter mail list. Please check the Kokopelli website for more information.
In short, Baumaux claimed that Kokopelli was violating the law by by failing to register their seeds, at the cost of 150 euros for each of their 14,500 varieties. This according to Baumaux gave Kokopelli a larger number of varieties than Baumaux, and an unfair business advantage. The judge decided there was no obstacle to Baumaux offering the same varieties if they choose, and the 150 euro registration fee was small in comparison to the damages claimed.
The judge did however reaffirm the legality of the EU seed law, and that Kokopelli was in violation of this. This could have consequences for other court cases.
Proposed New EU Seed Law Politically Dead
On Tuesday, 11 March, there was a vote in the EU Parliament, the first of only 2 so-called ‘readings’, on whether to return the current seed law legislative proposal to the EU Commission. This vote passed, meaning it will ultimately be returned to the Commission.
The seed industry is also claiming success! They pointed out the vote was procedurally flawed, meaning it’s not valid.
The reality is that regardless of if the vote was procedurally flawed, it’s a political decision of the Parliament. In order for the legislation to be passed, the Parliament and Council both have to agree, and the Council is now unlikely to continue working on the proposal knowing it’s virtually impossible for the Parliament to now agree.
If after the elections the Parliament begins working on the proposal, they now only have one more vote (‘reading’) remaining to pass it, and this is all but impossible to achieve.
The widely shared view among NGOs in Europe now, is that it’s politically dead, and can’t come back to life. Even though it may technically remain in the Parliament and Council for some time, it will ultimately end up back at the Commission for redrafting. Now what we hope is that this time they will start from the beginning with a proposal that takes into account the wishes and needs of consumers and the environment and not just industry!
