The EU’s agricultural sector is facing worrying trends that threaten the industry’s future. In a recent policy breakfast co-hosted by The Parliament, MEPs alongside member states and European Commission representatives convened to discuss how a licensing platform for patented traits in the plant sector can provide transparency and access to innovative solutions. May 2025 was the second hottest on record according to new data released by the EU’s Earth observation programme Copernicus. But this is only one of many increasingly worrying trends the EU’s agricultural sector is facing. Growing populations, less arable land and shortening water supplies all mean the industry needs to speed up its search for solutions.
Earlier this month, The Parliament co-hosted a policy breakfast with MEPs from the EPP, Renew and S&D groups, supported by the Agricultural Crop Licensing Platform (ACLP). The event brought together European Parliament, member state, and Commission representatives alongside industry experts to explore how the ACLP, an industry-born initiative, aims to stimulate innovation in a way that is beneficial to both small and large breeding companies.
What is plant breeding?
Plant breeding is a selective process of crossbreeding different plant varieties in order to produce offspring presenting an enhanced or desired combination of characteristics, known as traits. Plant breeding as a practice has been in use by humans for thousands of years.
Mainly, plant breeding is used to develop varieties that perform better, for instance by increasing yields, drought resistance, heat tolerance, or reducing the need for crop protection solutions or fertilisers, known as intrants.
European legislative context
There are two strings to IP legislation related to plants in Europe. The first – known as plant variety protection (PVP), aims at protecting the whole genome of a variety and gives breeders broad access to the market including non-restrictive commercialisation of new varieties, if these are considered different from the original. The second -- known as patents -- protects the individual characteristics, or traits of a plant, by limiting further breeding. As such, commercial licenses of patented traits are required if these characteristics are present in new commercial varieties.
The issue of IP protection in plant breeding has resurfaced in EU discussions this year. In January, the Polish presidency of the EU proposed new tripartite negotiations on the matter with the European Commission and Parliament.
Back in 2023, the European Commission decided to review whether gene-editing of crops should remain part of the GMO legislation, given advances in plant breeding technology which were making rapid progress, outpacing existing legislation. Gene editing uses advanced CRISPR CAS technology to edit the plant’s own DNA – something that occurs in conventional breeding, but which can be done much faster than traditional methods: reducing development time by a third around three years, compared to twelve without this technology. Unlike GMO, no foreign DNA is introduced.
In the same year, the ACLP was formed; an industry-born initiative composed of companies of varying size and employing different IP strategies with the aim of providing fair access to patented traits.
We cannot miss this train. We need innovation and science.
MEP Benoit Cassart, a cattle-breeder turned politician, opened the breakfast by stating that NGTs offer a “quick, targeted modification, often indiscernible from natural mutations”. The Belgian MEP, part of the Renew group, welcomed the opportunity to depolarise a highly sensitive debate, reaffirming his support for the adoption of the NGTs revision. “We cannot miss this train. We need innovation and science”.
The revision would reflect recent developments in agritech. Type 1 NGT plants, -- plants whose traits could have evolved naturally or through more traditional methods – will have their own regulatory framework, marking them as indistinguishable from conventional plants. For breeders, this would mean the plants they develop would be exempt from upstream risk assessment procedures and GMO labelling on the market. For MEP Christina Maestre, who also addressed the event, this administrative burden in the name of consumer safety is “not justified”.
MEP Maestre’s speech focused on the cost and time-related benefits these alternative techniques add compared to natural or more traditional methods of plant breeding. “We would reduce the development time”, she said. “From ten to twelve years, it could go down to four, or lower production costs in a very important and exponential way.” Moreover, she added, the UK, US and several other Asian countries have already adopted NGT favourable legislation, which begs the question: is Europe trailing behind?
Underlining the financial weight of breeding new crop varieties, Gerard Backx, VicePresident of the ACLP, shared that for some crops it can be “a few million, other crops many millions for a new variety”.
What is the ACLP proposing?
For breeders, especially from small and medium size businesses, navigating licencing negotiations is a time-consuming and costly affair. While few varieties of plants contain patented traits, Hélène Guillot, Managing Director of the ACLP, pointed out that the platform currently provides access to 95% of the patents registered in Europe, Ukraine and Russia. Members who join the platform are guaranteed access to these patents and cannot retain their patented traits.
While the European Parliament welcomed the 2023 proposal’s the change of legislative framework for the first type of NGT plants, its response added a clause that calls for a revision of the biopatents directive to exempt traits to be patented – a point that was raised by a European Parliament advisor for the NGT negotiations. Gerard Backx expressed that the use of patents is a way to stimulate innovation in the long term and that the ACLP provides a “tool to guarantee access for reasonable terms”. Claudia Hallebach, President of the ACLP, backed this argument stating that it was in the interest of both bigger and smaller breeding companies to have access to protected traits. “Smaller companies who do not have huge legal and IP departments can actually do transactions and have the resources to enter into licence agreements on standard terms provided be the platforms”, she said.
For the ACLP, finding harmony between the PVP and patent legislation provides the means to both incentivise and protect innovation.
What about the farmers?
Following the ACLP’s presentation, the Q&A session turned to focus on the impact on farmers using IP protected varieties. A representative from DG AGRI at the European Commission highlighted concerns for the potential financial strain on farmers using patent-containing seeds compared to conventional ones.
“There is no difference for the farmers”, claimed Gerard Backx. “Of course, newer varieties with a clear advantage for the farmer, in general, is likely to sell for a higher price”, he added. Ultimately, the choice of which seeds to buy and sow remains with the farmer. But, according to the ACLP, European farmers are keen to use high value varieties.
If Europe is to fight to be competitive, it must do so across the board, agriculture included. According to the European Commission, in 2024, the agricultural industry made up 9.1% of European trade exports, bringing in over €230 billion. For such a significant share of the European economy, there needs to be longterm solutions.
What’s more, with European farmers’ toolboxes shrinking, access to new tools is vital. Innovative breeding techniques, like those provided by NGTs, are a way for European agricultural sector to continue to produce high-quality and nutritious food for consumers while facing the increasing challenges brought by climate change and the world’s growing population.
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