Forest reproductive material: marketing (recasting Directives 66/404/EEC, 71/161/EEC)

PURPOSE: the updating of legislation concerning the marketing of forest reproductive material. CONTENT: Council Directive 66/404/EEC and Directive 71/161/EEC set out the requirements relating to genetic characters and external quality to be met by forest reproductive material before it may be marketed in the Community. The legislation has not been substantially amended since 1975. The present proposal therefore aims to update the legislation to take account of accessions of new Member States since 1975, the internal market and scientific advances, including the availability of new material. Furthermore, the proposal adapts the legislation to take account of the particular situation prevailing in Sweden and Finland, both of which countries were granted transitional periods of five years in the Accession Treaty, during which they do not have to apply the legislation. The current OECD Scheme covering forestry reproductive material moving in international trade dates from 1974. It has been the subject of considerable revision in the last few years and a new updated scheme will be adopted by the OECD Council in the near future. The new OECD Scheme, whilst basically compatible with the existing EC legislation, includes two additional categories of reproductive material which may be marketed, namely 'source identified' and 'qualified'. As all Member States, with the exception of Greece and Luxembourg, participate in the OECD Scheme, the proposal has been drafted to ensure as much compatibility as possible with that Scheme, including adding these two new categories permitted within the Community, namely 'selected' and 'tested'. The proposal provides, in so far as forest reproductive material consists of genetically modified organisms, for an environmental risk assessment. Measures have been envisaged in order to establish, through a future Council Regulation, procedures ensuring that this environmental risk assessment and other relevant elements should be equivalent to those laid down in Directive 90/220/EEC.�