Annual UPOV Session
After two years of online meetings, the UPOV annual sessions were organized in person in Geneva. All bodies of UPOV, Technical Committee (TC), CAJ (Administrative and Legal Committee), CC (Consultive Council) and Council (C), gathered from Oct 24th to 28th in the annual sessions.
In addition, the seminar “Role of Plant Breeding and PVP in enabling agriculture to mitigate and adapt to climate change” was organized simultaneously. In this seminar, the increasing effects of climate change affecting farmers, breeders, and consumers were discussed. CIOPORA participated in the event presenting a set of strategies to respond to the challenges. Moreover, it was presented how plant breeding has a vital role to play in these strategies.
Technical Committee
The most important point of discussion was related to the redesign on how UPOV should aim to deliver in its support to the work on DUS. As a result of a survey conducted a few months before, several weaknesses were identified in the current system. For instance, the repetition of content across different technical meetings, how to improve the integration of TWM-related matters into meetings, the lack of visits to field trials, among others. in order to work on the issues, a new working group (WG) will be initiated this November. CIOPORA will be participating in the WG and releasing the developments accordingly.
Administrative and Legal Committee
A relevant intervention was made by CIOPORA Secretary General, Dr. Edgar Krieger, who took the opportunity to express concern about the fact that the CC had not approved the draft 3 of the EXN on EDV. His statement was supported by other breeders’ associations namely IFS, Croplife, Euroseeds, SAA, APSA and AFSTA. During the lunch break of the CAJ session, UPOV members and observers were invited to participate in a separate meeting to further discuss the subject, that was organized by the breeders’ associations. A valuable exchange of facts took place and contributed to a better understanding of the topic on the side of some of the UPOV members.
Consultive Council (only open to UPOV members)
The procedure for the appointment of a new Vice Secretary-General was defined. The current Vice-Secretary General, Peter Button, will be stepping down next year and three new candidates have been nominated: Mr. Martin Ake Ekvad (Sweden), Ms. Yolanda Huerta-Casado (Spain), and Mr. Leontino Rezende Taveira (Brazil).
A presentation and an interview will be conducted on each candidate. A sub-committee will prepare a report to the Council, and in case of no consensus the election will be done by secret ballot within the members.
Council
The Council took a positive decision on the examination of the conformity of the Draft Law on the Protection of Varieties of Plants of Armenia with the 1991 Act of the UPOV Convention. This will allow Armenia, once the law will be in force, to deposit its instrument of accession to the 1991 Act.
The Council elected new chairpersons for a three-year-term ending in 2025:
Mr. Yehan Cui (China), President of the Council;
Mr. Anthony Parker (Canada), Vice-President of the Council;
Ms. María Laura Villamayor (Argentina), Chair of CAJ;
Ms. Minori Hagiwara (Japan), Vice-Chair of CAJ;
Ms. Beate Rücker (Germany), Chair of TC;
Ms. Nuria Urquía Fernández (Spain), Vice-Chair of TC
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