Biodiversity Policy EU: European Council approves regulation on Access and Benefit Sharing of Genetic Resources

On 14 April 2014 the European Council approved a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on compliance measures for users from the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization in the Union (PE-COS 131/13).

This is the final step for regulation on ABS on an EU level: member countries will now bring in measures to implement on a domestic level to fulfill obligations under the Nagoya Protocol to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.  The regulation discusses and interprets the Nagoya protocol but develops particular measures of interest to collections-holding institutions:

• a voluntary register of collections will be established with the intention of reducing risk of accessing non-compliant genetic resources: the standards associated with registration will mean that users can state that they have exercised due diligence with respect to information on origins, consent and terms of access.
• provision for recognition of best practice in the form of procedures, tools and mechanisms, developed by associations of users or others.  The intention of this is that adherence to recognised best practice will enable compliance with key requirements of the regulation.  Not stated in the regulation, but forming part of the discussion between various interest groups, is the intended benefit of maintaining international confidence on compliance and so facilitating continuing international scientific collaboration on collections materials.