12.10.2018, 02:11

Liebe Unterstützende,
der Petent oder die Petentin hat innerhalb der letzten 12 Monate nach Ende der Unterschriftensammlung keine Neuigkeiten erstellt und den Status nicht geändert. openPetition geht davon aus, dass die Petition nicht eingereicht oder übergeben wurde.

Wir bedanken uns herzlich für Ihr Engagement und die Unterstützung,
Ihr openPetition-Team

12.03.2014, 14:43

Dear supporters of our petition,

the EU-Parliament published the results of yesterdays votings on the Commissions proposal for a seed regulation, and other topics.

The correct numbers are as following:

voting 6 on the Commissions proposal: 15 yes; 615 no, 13 abstained;
voting 7 on the request for a referral: 574 yes, 90 no, 10 abstained;
voting 8 on the legislative resolution: 511 yes, 136 no, 16 abstained
(please notice: it was 511 yes and not only 51 as in the last mail wrongly written)

If you are interested in the question who voted how, you find the results of roll-call votes here:
tinyurl.com/EP-voting-140311 on pages 16 to 21.

If anybody would like to translate this and the last mail into the petitions language, please feel free to do so and please send it to info@seed-sovereignty.org. Then I would post the translation to all the supporters.

best regards
Andreas Riekeberg

Campaign for seed-sovereignty
www.seed-sovereignty.org

12.03.2014, 10:18

Dear supporters!

We've made it! The Parliament of the EU has decided: the Commissions proposal for a seed regulation is politically dead. In yesterdays plenary session was adopted with 51 to 130 votes a legislative resolution, which rejects the proposal of 6 Mai 2013 very clear and calls the Commission to submit a new one.

Until the last moment it was unclear: would the Parliament adopt such a legally binding resolution or would it restrict itself to a simple appeal to the Commission to withdraw the proposal? This appeal in the so called rejection report got 650 to 15 votes. But the Parliament insisted in a voting on the legislative resolution with the above mentioned result.

By this the longstanding engagement of organisations and groups which are dedicated to the maintaining and broadening of diversity, which are working for farmers rights to produce, exchange and use their seed or which are breeding varieties for ecofarming was successful.

With this decision the Parliament gave ear to the many hundreds of thousands of people from many European countries which signed since April 2013 diverse petitions against the Commissions proposal. Alone our petition „seed diversity under threat“ got some 150.000 supporters in 12 different languages.

A big „THANK YOU“ to all of you!

Now it would be important to adopt the current – even restrictive – EU-seed-law to the demands of maintaining and broadening of diversity. By this there should be given a reasonable legal framework to the groups, organisations and individuals which are engaged in this, and these initiatives should be supported and not restricted. A first step could be the evaluation of the so called conservation directives 2008/62/EC and 2009/145/EC, which should be done (as the directive itself demands) until end of 2013.

On the other hand the official control of the seeds of the seed industry has to be ensured. Concentration processes through acquisitions and interdependence have led in the past 30 years to a dangerous market power of the major chemical and seed corporations. And the seed industry won't give up their aim. Yesterday the seed lobby ESA tried to disturb the audience be claiming that the decision taken by the Parliament is invalid by procedural mistakes, see kurzlink.de/esa-seedlaw-140311. Anyhow, ESA's Secretary General Garlich von Essen had to admit the strength of the opponents to the new seed regulation and has spoken of a "very, very strong campaign".

Now we have to wait and be aware of how the Commission and the Council react on the resolution of the Parliament – and we will be attentive to intervene if necessary. In the times of climate change and exhaustion of resources we need a reorientation in the demands to varieties. How long agriculture and horticulture will be able to afford high-input-varieties? In the long run we need varieties with a positive energy balance – for this we need a rethinking in the seed legislation, and for this the support of you all will be needed furthermore!

Best regards
Andreas Riekeberg

Campaign for Seed-Sovereignty
www.seed-sovereignty.org

10.03.2014, 00:57

Dear supporter!

On Tuesday is the big seed day in the EU-Parliament. It The EP will vote on their statement on the commissions proposal in plenary. What will happen?
Scenario A: The Parliament adopts a “non-legislative rejection”. This is just a postponement - just a show. In this scenario, the new parliament will continue the work after elections in May.

Scenario B: The Parliament adopts a LEGISLATIVE rejection. This would mean the political death of the seed regulation. On Monday evening, the major political groups will discuss the issue on and fix their position. A so called 1st reading.

It is VERY important to call them and demand a LEGISLATVIE rejection (Option B).
The draft for such an LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION is already tabled! You find it here: tinyurl.com/legislative-resulution-seedlaw or: www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+REPORT+A7-2014-0112+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN Please chose your language at the top of the page.

English text of the tabled legislative resulution:
"The European Parliament, ... 1. Rejects the Commission proposal;
2. Calls on the Commission to withdraw its proposal and submit a new one;
3. Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council, the Commission and the national parliaments."

Please contact the relevant people per telephone.
1.) your national MEPs , see www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/map.html
2.) the rapporteurs see www.seed-sovereignty.org/PDF/2_List_rapporteurs.pdf
3.) The presidents of the Parliament, see www.seed-sovereignty.org/PDF/1_List_presidents.pdf You just need to click on them to obtain their phone numbers.

VERY IMPORTANT: Please note that Monday, 10. March, it’s the "Strasbourg session". This means: Until lunch: Make phonecalls in Brussels. After lunch: Make phonecalls in Strasbourg. It would be really important if you could call them!

There is still a chance to kick the proposal back! Let's use it!

Best regards
Andreas Riekeberg

Campaign for Seed-Sovereignty
www.seed-sovereignty.org

27.01.2014, 01:33

Dear subscriber of our petition on the EU-seed regulation,

will the proposal of the EU Commission will be rejected in the next days or not?

The negotiations on the new seed regulation in the AGRI committee of the EU Parliament are at a crossroads!

On the one hand: nearly all the coordinators of the political groups signed an amendment "The European Parliament rejects the Commission proposal." Very nice! If this would be accepted it would help a lot, because the Commission would have to re-draft the proposal.

On the other hand the commission and the ESA (lobby of the seed industry) did much lobbying last week. They want to be the proposal accepted by the Parliament with only little changes, because this proposal privileges the industrial varieties, very homogeneous and stable, and by this it discriminates biodiversity and farmers varieties.

The commission talks about a "level playing-field" for all operators. Unfortunately economy is not a game but a battle - and a level battlefield at DUS-criterias would privilege the strongest operators, the transnational seed companies like Monsanto, Bayer, BASF, Syngenta, DuPont Pioneer, Dow Chemical and KWS with their industrial DUS-varieties.


We have to act against their lobbying just now! On Mon 27 Jan (today) in the afternoon the AGRI committee is discussing the rejection, on Tue 11 Feb they are going to vote on the rejection.

Please call you MEP, especially the members of the AGRI committee! The earlier the better! You find the telephone numbers of their offices in Brussels below. Please tell them that you are concerned of the seed legislation and ask them for the rejection of the Commissions proposal, because of its many negative impacts.

A redrafting would provide the chance to prepare a new and much improved proposal:
- which keeps farmers production and marketing of seeds free of bureaucracy and thereby could really consider the farmers rights to produce, exchange, sell and use the seed they want,
- which enables the registration of organically bred varieties in an appropriate manner and
- which keeps the maintaining of agrobiodiversity free of bureaucracy.

You may refer to the Vienna Declaration "Protect our natural heritage, biodiversity and resulting food security!" www.eu-seedlaw.net which is signed by more than 40 organisations from all over Europe and translated into 16 languages. Please mention: The best way to allow diverse varieties on the open market would be to make a shift from a compulsory system of registration and certification to a voluntary one. (Please do not let disturb you: this would NOT allow GMO - they are subjected to another regulation, the Directive 2001/18/EC ... on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms!)

Please act now!

With best regards
Andreas Riekeberg
Campaign for Seed Sovereignty
www.seed-sovereignty.org


Telephone numbers of MEPs (members and substitutes in AGRI) from:

Spain:
Iratxe GARCIA PEREZ: +32(0)2 28 45646
Sergio GUTIERREZ PRIETO: +32(0)2 28 45331
Esther HERRANZ GARCIA: +32(0)2 28 45274
Gabriel MATO ADROVER: +32(0)2 28 45237
Alejandro CERCAS: +32(0)2 28 45455
Ricardo CORTES LASTRA: +32(0)2 28 45814

20.10.2013, 15:39

añadida traducción al Inglés
Neuer Petitionstext: Estimados Miembros del Parlamento
Estimados Miembros del Consejo

Actualmente se están elaborando nuevas regulaciones de semillas en Bruselas. Si los planes de la Dirección General de Salud y de los Consumidores llegan a convertirse en realidad, aun mas variedades antiguas y raras de frutas, hortalizas y granos desaparecerán del mercado. Esta diversidad de variedades y de variedades adaptadas a la agricultura orgánica van a ser obstaculizadas por la burocracia, mientras que el poder de la agricultura empresarial se podría fortalecer aún más.

Los textos actualmente disponibles para la nueva regulación de las semillas de la UE, promoverá una concentración del mercado de semillas en manos de un pequeño número de corporaciones de la industria semillera. Esto es inaceptable. Una nueva regulación de las semillas de la UE debe permitir la diversidad de variedades, variedades para la agricultura de pequeña escala y el desarrollo de variedades ecológicamente adaptadas. La diversidad de variedades deben estar disponibles no sólo en los bancos de genes, pero también en los mercados abiertos, sin ningún tipo de restricciones burocráticas.

Por eso exigimos que no haya obligación alguna de registro! Además de esto, los criterios de registro actuales deben ser reducidos para aquellas variedades aptas para la agricultura orgánica, en virtud de su diversidad, para que nuestra agricultura se pueda adaptar al cambio climático, nuevas plagas y enfermedades, así como a los estilos de vida más respetuosos del medio ambiente.

Ni la actual ley de semillas de la UE ni los proyectos presentados informalmente actualmente disponibles para los cambios legales a la ley, cumplen con estos requisitos. Ellos amenazan la diversidad de semillas y por lo tanto el patrimonio agrícola común de la humanidad. También amenazan los sistemas alimentarios sostenibles y sólo existen para servir a la industria agroquímica.

Instamos a la Comisión Europea, el Parlamento y los miembros del Consejo, a rechazar cualquier propuesta que no cumpla con los criterios antes mencionados! No más destrucción de la diversidad de semillas agrícolas y hortícolas en Europa!

Para más información, visite:
- Campaña para la Soberanía de las Semillas: www.seed-sovereignty.org/ES/index.html
- Organización central alemana para la diversidad de cultivos y ganadería ("Dachverband Kulturpflanzen-und Nutztiervielfalt eV"): www.kulturpflanzen-nutztiervielfalt.org/node/29
- Blog de Patrick Wiebe: www.bifurcatedcarrots.eu/


Seed diversity under threat – No European seed regulations for the benefit of the seed industry -

Esteemed Members of the Commission,
Esteemed Members of the Parliament,
Esteemed Members of the Council!

New seed regulations are currently being drafted in Brussels. If the Directorate General for Health and Consumers’ plans become a reality, more old and rare varieties of fruits, vegetables and grains will disappear from the market. These diverse varieties and varieties adapted to organic agriculture are to be hampered by bureaucracy, while the power of corporate agriculture is further strengthened.

The currently available texts for the new EU seed regulation will promote a concentration of the seed market into the hands of a small number of seed industry corporations. This is unacceptable. A new EU seed regulation must allow diversity varieties, varieties for small-scale farming and ecologically adapted breeding. Diverse varieties must be available not only in gene banks, but on the open market too, without any bureaucratic restrictions.

Therefore we demand: no obligation for registration! Besides this, the current registration criteria must be lowered for varieties suitable for organic farming by virtue of their diversity, so our agriculture remains adaptable to climate change, new pests and diseases, as well as more environmentally friendly lifestyles.

Neither the current EU seed law nor the presently available informally submitted drafts for legal changes to the law fulfil these requirements. They threaten seed diversity and thereby mankind’s common agricultural heritage. They also threaten sustainable food systems and exist only to serve the agrochemical industry.

We urge you, EU Commission, Parliament and Council members, to reject any proposal that does not fulfil the above mentioned criteria!
No more destruction of agricultural and horticultural seed diversity in Europe!

For more information visit:
- Campaign for Seed-Sovereignty www.seed-sovereignty.org
- German umbrella organisation for crop and livestock diversity („Dachverband Kulturpflanzen- und Nutztiervielfalt e.V.“):www.kulturpflanzen-nutztiervielfalt.org/node/29
- German Association for the conservation of crop plants Neue Begründung: Motivo:

Las normas vigentes de semillas de la UE provienen de una época en la que se subestimo la protección del medio ambiente, la naturaleza y la diversidad biológica. Hubo numerosas empresas semilleras que pusieron una amplia diversidad de variedades en el mercado. La mayoría de estas variedades podían ser re-sembradas después de la cosecha, una técnica que ha existido desde hace miles de años, en la historia agrícola.

En la década de 1980, dos nuevos términos se tuvieron que desarrollar para lo que previamente sólo había sido una práctica común: "Los derechos de los agricultores" en primer lugar y en segundo lugar "variedades de polinización abierta" (cuyas semillas producen la misma variedad, a menos que se crucen con variedades similares). Esto es debido a que el mercado de semillas cambió drásticamente. Hoy en día, las diez empresas más grandes dominan tres cuartas partes de mercado de las semillas del mundo, y más de la mitad del mercado mundial proviene de la industria química.

La mayoría de las variedades son objeto de restricciones legales y técnicas, que socavan el derecho de los agricultores a resembrar sus propias semillas. Los criterios introducidos para autorizar la comercialización de variedades, se aplican a las variedades industriales. La productividad y el aumento de la población mundial se utilizaron para justificar estos hechos. El informe completo de la Evaluación Internacional del Conocimiento, la Ciencia y la Tecnología en el Desarrollo Agrícola (IAASTD) ilustra la inestabilidad de este enfoque.

La diversidad de cultivos ha desaparecido en gran parte del mercado. Estas son las variedades no registradas - que son comercializadas por miles de intrépidos ciudadanos europeos sin el registro requerido. Hoy en día, dependemos de la amplia experiencia de ellos, y deberíamos alentar a que mas personas practiquen esta actividad, no sólo como un pasatiempo, sino también para generar ingresos y medios de vida.

Un segundo aspecto importante es que casi no se han desarrollado variedades apropiadas y específicas para la agricultura orgánica en virtud de su diversidad. La agricultura orgánica requiere plantas que sean vigorosas sin químicos. Esto sólo es posible con una amplia reserva de genes naturales. Sin embargo, estas variedades se consideran habitualmente como inaceptables para su registro conforme a los criterios actuales para el registro de semillas.

En nombre de todos los firmantes.

Reason:

The current EU seed regulations stem from a time in which environmental protection, nature and biological diversity were underestimated. There were numerous breeding enterprises which put an extensive diversity of varieties on the market. Most of these varieties could be re-sown after harvest, a technique which has existed for thousands of years, throughout agricultural history.

In the 1980s, two new terms had to be developed for what previously had just been common practice: firstly „farmers’ rights“ and secondly „open pollinated“ varieties (the seeds of which produce the same variety unless they cross with similar varieties). This is due to the fact that the seed market changed dramatically. Today, the ten biggest companies dominate three-quarters of the worlds’ seed market, and more than half of the global market comes from the chemical industry.

Most of the varieties are subject to legal and technical restrictions, which undermine re-sowing seed saved by the growers themselves. An official approval for the marketing of varieties was introduced, and the criteria for this are adapted to industrial varieties. Productivity and increasing world population were used to justify these developments. The comprehensive report of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) illustrates the instability of this approach.

Crop diversity has largely disappeared from the market. This concerns the diversity of non-registered varieties - they are traded by thousands of intrepid citizens in Europe without the required registration. Today, we rely on the extensive expertise of these people, and we should encourage the increasing amount of people engaging in this activity, not only as a hobby but also to generate income and a livelihood from it.

A second important aspect is that hardly any appropriate varieties have been bred specifically for organic agriculture by virtue of their diversity. However, organic farming needs plants that are powerful without chemicals. This is only possible with a wide-ranging, natural gene pool. Such varieties are routinely deemed to be unacceptable for registration under the current criteria for seed registration.

On behalf of all signatories