PRESS RELEASE
Faith-based and development organisations call for the EU seed legislation to support biodiversity, uphold farmers’ rights to seeds and reinforce the right to food in the EU and beyond.
Brussels, 12 March 2026 - These organisations, including ACT Alliance EU, Broederlijk Delen, Brot für die Welt, Caritas Europa, Caritas Africa, Caritas Mona, Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace Harare, Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council, CIDSE (Coopération internationale pour le développement et la solidarité), European Christian Environmental Network, Swiss Church Aid, Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, World Council of Churches, have expressed serious concern over the ongoing Trilogue negotiations on the EU Plant Reproductive Material (PRM) Regulation.
In a joint letter addressed to Rapporteur Herbert Dorfmann, European Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare Olivér Várhelyi and EU agriculture ministers, the coalition stresses that EU seed legislation has far-reaching implications not only within Europe but also for farmers and food systems globally. Drawing on their work with partners across the Global South, the organisations stress that the regulation could affect farmers’ human rights, biodiversity and global food security if enhanced flexibility for the diversity of agriculture and seed systems is not provided.
The signatories emphasise that farmers’ rights to seeds are a fundamental component of the human right to food, as recognised in international frameworks such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Living in Rural Areas (UNDROP). They therefore call on EU policymakers to ensure that farmers can freely exchange plant reproductive material, including with monetary compensation and without regional restrictions. Such exchanges, they argue, are essential to maintaining locally adapted varieties, strengthen agroecological farming systems and support resilient, climate adaptable food production.
Additionally, the coalition urges the EU to strengthen measures that protect agrobiodiversity and diversify seed markets. Their recommendations include exempting the dynamic conservation of agrobiodiversity from the regulation’s scope, enabling registration of traditional and newly developed local varieties as conservation varieties, and ensuring that small seed initiatives are not excluded by burdensome administrative requirements. The organisations also call for greater transparency regarding breeding techniques and intellectual property rights, as well as participatory governance structures that safeguard traditional knowledge and prevent the misappropriation of farmers’ plant genetic resources. Taken together, they argue, these measures would allow EU seed legislation to support biodiversity, uphold farmers’ rights to seeds and reinforce the right to food worldwide.
Media contacts:
Jose Emmanuel Yap, CIDSE, Food and Land Policy Officer
Email: yap
cidse [dot] org Phone : +32497319244
Emile Arinaga, Broederlijk Delen, Policy Officer Food Systems
Email: emile [dot] arinagabroederlijkdelen [dot] be Phone : +32495707305
Stig Tanzmann, Brot für die Welt, Policy Advisor
Email: stig [dot] tanzmannbrot-fuer-die-welt [dot] de Phone: +49 174 1630393