The EU has decided to provide the seed sector with a new, updated law, although it has not yet fully decided how. Discussions have been ongoing since 3 February 2026, when the trilogue opened on the new European regulation on Plant Reproductive Material (PRM) [proposal COM (2023) 414], based on a Council position agreed in December 2025, which in turn incorporated a Commission proposal from July 2023. The underlying objectives are to protect biodiversity, ensure food security, and improve traceability, with seeds at the centre. Opinions on how to proceed are diverse and in some cases conflicting.
PRM refers to seeds, cuttings, trees, roots, tubers, etc., used for the reproduction of other plants. It concerns the fair production and trade of seeds and other plant reproductive material within the EU Member States.
The new regulation intends to revise, update, and modernize laws dating back to the 1960s and subsequent amendments. Around 10 directives are to be harmonized and consolidated into a single text, with a view to increased sustainability, digitalization, and a reduction of administrative burdens. Key aspects include more rigorous and climate adapted registration for commercial seeds, while also allowing exemptions for forest reproductive material, ornamental plants, PRM exported to third countries, and traditional local varieties.
It will not cover certain categories, including heterogeneous biological material and seeds and plants used for official testing and scientific purposes.
Subhead: An Ambitious Project
The objectives to be achieved, summarized below, are various and concern many aspects of the seed industry.
- Establish a set of rules applicable across all EU countries, standardizing implementation and ensuring equal conditions for all, while simultaneously reducing administrative burdens. This would represent a necessary operational simplification.
- Support scientific and technological progress, enabling the use of the most recent biomolecular and breeding techniques, not covered by the previous legislation. This is a key point, reflecting the desired openness to new genetic improvement technologies and consequently, ensure the availability of high-quality genetic material, in line with the needs of modern agriculture, particularly with regard to adverse biotic and abiotic factors. Significant progress has been made recently, but final approval is still hindered by some sectors, such as organic agriculture and certain environmental associations.
- Ensure food security by safeguarding genetic resources and protecting biodiversity, with a focus on conservation varieties and organic farming. This is another hot topic, potentially leading to conflicts of interest and operational complications, and it runs counter to the simplifying philosophy of the new regulation.
Confirmations and Changes
The two cornerstones of current legislation, the registration of varieties in the national and European registers and seed certification, will remain unchanged. Efforts will be made to streamline the process and make it less cumbersome and bureaucratic. New provisions are planned regarding derogations for seeds intended for non-professional use and for seed exchanges between farmers, which will be reviewed after five years.
On the one hand, the EU Commission’s proposal is based on laudable intentions and concepts that are certainly welcome, such as the harmonization and the streamlining of previous regulations. It also presents potential improvements to operations, such as the accreditation of interested parties.
On the other hand, the derogations introduced are raising considerable alarm and concern among seed companies.
These include, for example, the possibility of seed exchanges between farmers, the recognition of heterogeneous material beyond the organic sector, and the registration of conservation varieties.
The fact that these contexts are essentially excluded from the new regulation, or moved to a simplified regime, creates the risk of circumventing the rules and opening the door to potential illegality and, in some cases, uncontrolled competition.
The seed sector has always taken the utmost care in controlling and identifying reproductive material, to safeguard farmers and the entire supply chain.
Moreover, some pillars of the new framework, such as the traceability of food and plant health, are impossible to achieve without starting from certified, controlled material, whether seed or other reproductive material.
The critical point of the emerging legislation is the attempt to make wide-ranging concerns coexist within the same text, such as professional agriculture and food security on the one hand, and specific niche interests on the other.
The former must be given priority, given their social and economic importance, without neglecting environmentalist and particularist needs and expectations and, at the same time, without the latter prevailing over the former.
These priorities could conflict with one another, risking damage to entities that invest millions of euros in research and marketing. Ultimately, the damage would fall across the entire production chain, from farmers and consumers.
Franco Brazzabeni Is a commercial and marketing consultant in the international agribusiness, Member of the Board of Assosementi and of ISF Groups and writes a blog on www.agrinotes.it.
