Yesterday evening, the EU Parliament’s technical committee decided on the new soil directive and the seed regulation.
Strasbourg (OTS) – The EU Parliament’s Agriculture and Environment Committee is currently working on both a new soil directive and a revision of the EU seed regulation.
Sarah Wiener is the Green shadow rapporteur for the Soil Directive and the Seed Regulation and summarizes: “After a catastrophic vote in the Agriculture Committee, the Environment Committee at least pushed for concrete goals in terms of soil protection: Soils in the EU should be healthy by 2050. A clear improvement after a right-wing conservative majority in the Agriculture Committee deleted all progress without replacement, including definitions for sustainable soil management.”
The vote on the new seed regulations was also positive. Wiener comments: “Seeds must be tested before they are approved for the EU market. So far, the new conventional varieties have been selected based on whether they grow well with expensive mineral fertilizers and chemical pesticides. A wrong approach that has nothing to do with resilience and climate adaptation. The Environmental Committee therefore demands that conventional seeds should also be tested under organic conditions in the future. This means the most robust varieties prevail and farmers are less dependent on expensive chemical inputs.”
“However, there was no majority in favor of more freedom of choice when it came to genetically modified seeds (NGTs): With the deregulation of new genetic engineering, member states would no longer be able to decide in the future whether NGTs should be grown. We wanted to create an exception clause in the Environment Committee, which unfortunately did not pass.”
Since the Agriculture Committee is also working on the new seed regulation, further votes are still pending, and Wiener has clear demands for this: “According to the UN, we have lost 90% of our global species and seed diversity in the last 50 to 100 years, so we should do all we can to protect the last remaining varieties. It is therefore crucial that the new seed regulation does not restrict the distribution of seeds, for example by NGOs, farmers or hobby gardeners. The Environment Committee has advocated for this, but the decisive authority for these articles lies with the Agriculture Committee. I therefore appeal to my colleagues to vote to preserve diversity.”
The vote on the seed regulation in the Agriculture Committee is scheduled for March 19th. In April, both dossiers will be on the agenda for the plenary session in Strasbourg, so the EU Parliament’s position will be finalized before the election.
Questions & Contact:
Ludmilla Reisinger/press spokeswoman Sarah Wiener, MEP
ludmilla.reisinger@la.europarl.europa.eu
+43 660 3213732
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