I’ve had lots of questions about the status of the pending EU seed law, and there’s a lot of misinformation circulating, so let me try to put it into some perspective.
Committee Votes
The proposal was made by the EU Commission last May, and since then it’s been in the EU Parliament and EU Council. What happens in the Council is not always very transparent, and it may be they have not been very active with it. In any case, I’m not sure about the Council.
In the Parliament, it has been in two committees with a sort of joint competency; the environment committee (ENVI) and the agriculture committee (AGRI). Some 1600 or so amendments have been submitted while in these committees, making it clear there’s a lot of opposition and disagreement. Both committees have now passed resolutions calling for the measure to be rejected, and sent back to the Commission for redrafting. The ENVI committee did this at the end of January, and the AGRI committee last Tuesday. These resolutions are only advisory however, and now there will be a plenary vote in the main floor of the Parliament. The Council would also have to agree for it to be returned to the Commission.
Plenary Vote
In the plenary, the resolutions calling for rejection can changed and amended. The seed industry is lobbying hard to keep the current proposal, with only some minor changes. I guess almost anything can happen in this vote.
In addition, while the tentative date for this vote is now 12 March, this is an indicative date, and delays are certainly possible, if not probable.
There is also the possibility the EU Commission could voluntarily withdraw the proposal, but this is not considered likely.
Elections
EU Parliament elections are in May. Not only will we likely have different MEPs, who may be less friendly to our side of the argument, but after fresh elections they may be less receptive to public opinion. The chance is very good the current Parliament will find reasons to delay this measure until after the elections, so that it can be considered again by the new Parliament.
If it is considered by the new Parliament, they may decide to return the same proposal back to committee, and start the whole process all over again.
Return to the Commission ASAP
While the seed industry thinks the proposal can be fixed with a few small changes, this is not the position of most seed related NGOs around Europe. It is certainly not our position. The current proposal is not without some good aspects, but overall it’s seriously flawed and should be rewritten.
The best option now is for it to be returned to the Commission as soon as possible. There is also the uncertainty where this measure rests with the EU Council, and if it were returned to the Commission, the Council would stop working on it. The Council is not thought to be friendly towards issues of biodiversity.
If it is returned to the Commission for redrafting, this is expected to be completed by 2016, and then the whole process will start over again, but hopefully with a better proposal to work with.
