The European Communities Directorat General has decided to review
the legislation (the acquis) on the marketing of seeds and plant propagating
material. According to the Commissions announcement, "the first step
of this review process consists of an evaluation of the current acquis. This
should provide documented answers on the strengths and weaknesses of the current
system for achieving the set objectives, or highlight the need to set new objectives
in order to respond to new and anticipated challenges.An equally important aim
is to explore the possibilities for simplification and a reduction of administrative
burdens on both public authorities and private sector stakeholders.The evaluation
will be carried out by external consultants (the FCEC consortium), assisted
by a Steering Group composed of a balanced mix of experts from a number of Member
States and from the Commission's services.The task of the Steering Group is
to assist in drafting the terms of reference and the questionnaire, and to ensure
the quality of the final report.On the basis of the recommendations to be contained
in the final report, the Commission will then draft an action plan, laying out
a programme for putting into practice any suggested reforms.The FCEC launched
a survey on 18 February 2008 to collect the views of stakeholders regarding
the current Community acquis on the marketing of seeds and propagating material
and to gather suggestions for the future. The deadline for returning
the survey questionnaire is 11 April 2008. The survey questionnaire
is available in Word format and online (online version currently under construction)."
The contact point within the European Commission's DG Sanco is
Mr Michael Flueh
Head of Unit Biotechnology and Plant Health, Health and Consumer protection
Directorate-General, European Commission, DG SANCO
Belliard, B232 03/100, Brussels, Belgium, Tel: +32 2 992257, Fax: +32 2 956043,
Email: michael.flueh@cec.eu.int
Official Documents: 
Website
of the European Commission on the evaluation
Here you can download the questionnaire and return it to the Commission. It
also lists present the Communities seed legislation, provides the terms of reference
and the contract on the evaluation. It will be updated as the process proceeds.
The evaluation has been contracted out to a "Food Chain Evaluation
Consortium" led by "Arcadia International" Arcadia is led by
Dr Rodolphe de Borchgrave, a vivid promotor of GMOs and partner in SIGMEA (Sustainable
introduction of GMOs in European Agriculture) and Bill Vandaele, who is a Life
Science specialist and GMO lobbyist as well. Among its listed consultants is
also Nicolas Kalaitzandonakes, who has been the pricipal researcher contracted
by the Seed Industry to fight for high GMO thresholds in seeds.
The contact person for this evaluation is Arcadia's Daniel Traon, who started
his career in Seed Business as breeder for Pioneer Hi-Bred. In 1996, he moved
to Belgium to Plant Genetic Systems (today Bayer Bioscience) as Business Development
Manager in Biotech Projects. During most of that period, he, also, acted as
domain leader in Information Management applied to the R&D functions within
Bayer worldwide. Website
of Arcadia International
Official Documents