In this open letter, NGOs from Africa and Europe express their concerns about the damaging effects of intellectual property (IP) provision on plant variety protection in the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union and Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Zimbabwe.
The NGOs urge the European Commission and the relevant African countries' agriculture and trade ministers to remove the requirement to adopt 1991 UPOV rules from the draft agreement, and to ensure that farmers and their organisations can meaningfully participate in this key decision-making process.