b"THE NGT PROPOSAL islative work regarding the market organization and the food value To secure European and global food safety, Poland will focus onchain, especially given the farmer's position in the system. This is the revision of the Green Deal and propose solutions that will notnow the position of the Ministry on the involvement of farmers' only be environmentally friendly but also acceptable and beneficialvoices in the decision process and organized dialogue. Regarding for the farmers and the European agricultural value chain. Lookingexternal issues, the focus will be put especially on the agreement into the proposed legislation and ongoing discussions, the mainwith MERCOSUR countries, on the future relation of the EU with focus will be the proposal for the regulation of certain new genomicUkraine and a special concern on the stability of European markets. techniques (NGTs). Poland recognizes the importance of obtaining these techniques for plant breeders who will have the possibility toTHE OFFICIAL FRUITdevelop new varieties in a shorter time and with new traits that willDuring the presidency, there are some 300 official meetings planned help mitigate climate change and have the potential for sustainablein Poland in 24 cities. And a high number of them will focus on the transformation. During the presidency, the ambitious goal will beagricultural sector issues, as a possibility to exchange experiences to find a compromise at Council level. Poland will mainly focusin different areas. It has also been announced that the official fruit on the issue of equal access to the techniques, especially for SMEof the presidency will be the Polish apple. Poland is the biggest breeding companies, which is directly connected with the patent- producer of apples in the EU and 4th in the world. Polish apples ing issue. The prepared compromised proposition will try to find aare famous for their taste and quality, appreciated by international way to secure the current European status based on the values andconsumers.intellectual property compromise of the plant variety protection system (PVP).Editors Note: Artur Paszkowski is Deputy Director of the Polish Seed Trade AssociationWHAT ABOUT THE PATENTING OF NGTS?The Polish authorities have frequently indicated that the main issue for the acceptance is the current possibility to patent NGT plants and as a result, the lack of the full breeders' exemption. The proposal secures free market access for seeds of varieties where the owner will not file a patent application and will resign from patent protection, remaining with the PVP system. This status will be confirmed by a special verification procedure supervised by the Commission. In case of remaining patent protection, the material should be spe-cially labelled and Member States will have a possibility for an opt-out decision regarding such material. In short, the Polish proposal aims for a mechanism that will encourage owners of varieties obtained with the use of NGTs to resign from patent protection.BUT THERES ALSO THE PRM PROPOSALDuring the Presidency, Poland also plans to be active on the Plant Reproductive Material (PRM) file. The Polish authori-ties consider this file as a large technical piece of legislation, requiring attention and detailed work. This regulation will be key in getting new plant varieties and innovation to the market. Because of earlier work, there was a lot of dis-cussion but only a few decisions on the future text were taken. With three work meetings planned in the next six months, current work progress at the Council level doesn't allow for closing this file. Therefore, the main goal is to work on the file, find as much as possible agreement within the expert working group, and prepare a detailed report with an advanced text for the next pres-idency (i.e. Denmark from July-December 2025).DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL AREASDuring the presidency, Poland wishes to take care of the future development of rural areas, by differentiation of its funding sources. Poland will put some pressure on the leg-FEBRUARY 2025|SEEDWORLD.COM/EUROPEISEED WORLD EUROPE I 9"