The European Parliament report on the Farm to Fork strategy1 adopted today outlines the Parliament’s position on the big political priorities set up by the European Commission aimed at achieving a more sustainable EU agriculture in the coming years.
Euroseeds welcomes the recognition of the value of plant breeding, including plant breeding innovation, and the importance of ensuring the security and diversity of seed in the report as a precondition to achieve the objectives of the Farm to Fork strategy. Plant breeding remains the key input for EU farmers and will become even more important as other inputs get restricted.
A proportionate regulation for the different types of seeds and breeding methods and safeguarding the single market for seeds are critical for for EU seed companies to remain highly diversified, supply a wide portfolio of species and cover the diverse geographical areas of the EU2. It will allow the seed sector to effectively respond to the Parliament’s requests regarding seeds and plant breeding as stated in the report.
However, it must be underlined that the late publication of the Joint Research Centre’s report on the impact of the EU’s objectives has made it almost impossible to fully address its findings in the discussion and the final text. Euroseeds strongly supports the clear call from the Parliament to perform such comprehensive Impact Assessment which must no longer be ignored by the Commission. Commission, Member States and Parliament now have to discuss in earnest how to implement the initiatives and targets as promised: in a way that leaves no one behind.
References:
1 https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/A-9-2021-0271_EN.html
2https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/note/join/2013/513994/IPOL-AGRI_NT(2013)513994_EN.pdf
