EU : European Union will sign a new international treaty on agricultural biodiversity

Commissioner David Byrne has welcomed the decision of the EU's Council of Ministers yesterday that the European Union will sign the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The Treaty aims to protect the world's most important agricultural plant species in order to safeguard global food security. The Treaty provides for free access to plant genetic resources for research and breeding. Recipients marketing products arising from that access will have to pay back into the system an equitable share of the monetary and other benefits.