Tenth meeting of the ECPGR Steering Committee
5-8 September 2006, Jurmala, Riga, Latvia
ECPGR Phase VII at mid-term

The tenth meeting of the ECPGR Steering Committee (SC), held in Riga, Latvia, on 5-8 September 2006, was the occasion to evaluate progress of the Networks since the onset of Phase VII (2004–2008) and to make plans for the future.

The fruitful collaboration between the hosting institutions, the University of Latvia and the Ministry of Agriculture, Republic of Latvia, enabled a successful event, which was the first ECPGR meeting ever to take place in Latvia. Representatives from 34 member countries were present, together with observers from 5 non-member countries and representatives of Bioversity International (formerly IPGRI), the European Seed Association (ESA), EUCARPIA, FAO, the Nordic Gene Bank (NGB) and of the NGOs.

The status of implementation of the current Phase VII was reviewed, taking into account that 38 member countries currently participate in the Programme. Among the various practical and operational issues discussed, it is interesting to note that the SC decided to simplify the name of the Programme to “European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources” and the acronym was also modified to “ECPGR”, removing the traditional slash of “ECP/GR”. Considering the increasing complexity of the Programme, the document prepared during this Phase, describing the “Terms of reference for the ECPGR operational bodies” was appreciated as very useful and it was recommended that its scope be broadened to include further elements of clarification regarding the role of “Working Group Chair”, “Database Manager of an ECPGR Central Crop Database” and “Network Coordinator”. The procedure for the election of the Working Group Chair and the duration of this position also needs to be clarified in the document.
The importance of involving the European Union as a member of ECPGR was reiterated. The SC decided that a short strategy paper should be formulated, to be addressed to the European Commission, in its capacity as a Party to the International Treaty.

Informative reviews of progress made by the Networks were welcomed by the SC members. The SC concluded that the Networks had given appropriate attention to the priority issues defined for Phase VII (Characterization and evaluation; Documentation and information; In situ and on-farm conservation and management; and Task sharing). Improvements in the status of collection data were recorded for most of the Working Groups, while the national inventories data made available through the EURISCO catalogue also had significantly increased. The main progress in the area of in situ conservation was related to the EU-funded PGR Forum project, culminating in the achievement of a Crop Wild Relatives catalogue for Europe and the Mediterranean. Concepts of task sharing were adopted by most of the Working Groups, following the example and the influence of the AEGIS project (see below).

The priority issues defined for Phase VII were considered to be still valid for reproposition during the next Phase, with “task sharing” being the top priority, but also adding the element of “capacity building”, considering the additional need to devote part of the existing collaboration to enhancing the capacity of the less developed sectors of the European genetic resources community. Network Coordinators will be requested to provide a list of proposed actions for Phase VIII, including clearly measurable outputs. The SC also decided to assign a Task Force with the aim of defining the appropriate division between WG meetings, actions and ad hoc meetings and to look at criteria that would enable evaluating the relevance of the proposed actions and outputs, as well as the ratio of distribution of ECPGR funds over the Networks.

The evaluation of the ECPGR-funded feasibility study on the establishment of A European Genebank Integrated System (AEGIS) concluded with the proposal that this work requires further consideration of the practical aspects of implementation of the AEGIS project.
The SC confirmed that the concept of AEGIS, which builds on national, regional and sub-regional activities, is to be a major European regional initiative to increase the efficiency and quality of germplasm collections’ management and the utilization of these collections, as well as aiming to optimize the use of available resources. In-depth consideration of the future of AEGIS will need to be taken at the 11th meeting of the SC.
Areas requiring more detail before any decision can be taken include: criteria for the identification of Most Appropriate Accessions, development of quality management systems, an overview of estimated operational costs for collection maintenance before or after the introduction of AEGIS, development of a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for signature by the Ministries, specifying the political consent of the national authorities for task sharing, and taking into account the relationship with the obligations of the International Treaty. The SC recommended that the ECPGR Secretariat initiates the process of further preparation of draft decisions and possible implementation mechanisms for the AEGIS concept as soon as possible. It also decided to reallocate part of the Network funds (150 000 euro) for immediate action. The Steering Committee also viewed a direct involvement of the European Union in realizing an integrated system of European collections as highly relevant and will seek to engage the European Commission in its work.

The recent developments of the International Treaty for PGRFA (IT) were thoroughly discussed. The SC welcomed the outcome of the first session of the Governing Body of the IT held in Madrid in June 2006. Conscious of the complementarity of the objectives of the IT and those of ECPGR, the SC encouraged those ECPGR member countries that have not yet ratified the IT to do so. For those ECPGR member countries which have ratified the IT, the SC wished to encourage full implementation at the national level as rapidly as possible, taking into account the specific conditions of the individual country.
A checklist of steps that might be taken from a technical and operational point of view to achieve the implementation of the Treaty was agreed upon and was included in the report of the meeting.

An invitation was made by the Director of the Nordic Gene Bank, Bent Skovmand to hold the next SC meeting in 2008 at Longyearbyen, Svalbard Islands, following construction of the facilities of the Svalbard International Seed Depository. The SC welcomed this invitation and will take it into consideration.
All presentations made during the meeting are available upon request to the ECPGR Secretariat [here].