Steering Committee in Turkey launches Phase VII of ECPGR and sets the strategy for the future

The Ninth Steering Committee (SC) meeting of ECPGR could well stand out as a milestone in the 23 year existence of the Programme. The SC was hosted 22-25 October 2003 in the quiet surroundings of Menemen, Izmir, Turkey. The warm hospitality of the Aegean Agricultural Research Institute and the pleasant weather helped to create an optimal setting for the four–day meeting, which lead to the development of a strategy for Phase VII (2004-2008) of ECPGR and a mechanism to ensure advanced strategic planning and the monitoring of results.

The structure and role of the Network Coordinating Groups (NCGs) was defined in detail, with more responsibility being assigned to these bodies for identifying priorities and actions within each Network. New rules for the participation of Working Group (WG) members in ECPGR meetings were agreed upon, and a fixed quota of funded participants for each member country was agreed upon for the new Phase. An additional WG Chair quota was also decided at the discretion of the Chairs.

A detailed planning and prioritizing mechanism was established, to enable priorities and actions to be defined for each subsequent Phase. Approximately ten WGs will be prioritized for funding during each Phase, while the remaining WGs will still receive minimum support from the Secretariat.
Four main issues were endorsed as future ECPGR priorities for Phase VII:

• Characterization and evaluation (including use of modern technologies)
• Task sharing
• In situ and On-farm conservation
• Documentation and Information

Members of the NCGs and WGs will develop proposals on how to allocate the funds assigned to each Network within the Phase, including meetings, publications or other actions, and final decisions will be taken by June 2004 by the SC.
A few changes to the structure of the Networks were agreed upon, including the merging of the Vegetables and Minor Crops Networks, and the expansion of the Grain Legumes Network into an Oil and Protein Crops Network. The Industrial Crops and Potato Network was renamed as the Sugar, Starch and Fibre Crops Network. Three new Working Groups were established, namely: Cucurbits; Leafy Vegetables; and Fibre Crops (Flax and Hemp) (see: Organigram).

A project focusing on the sharing of responsibilities as a possible model for A European Genebank Integrated System (AEGIS) was endorsed for ECPGR funding. The main objectives of this project are to focus on a few model crops, assessing existing options for responsibility sharing at the European level and assessing institutional capacities and bottlenecks in order to propose an AEGIS model.

The SC redefined its composition (see: Observers in the SC), offering new observer status to the European Association for Research on Plant Breeding (EUCARPIA) and maintaining the European Man and the Biosphere Programme (EuroMAB) of UNESCO, FAO, Bioversity International (formerly IPGRI), the European Seed Association (ESA), the Nordic Gene Bank (NGB) and the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) as traditional observers. The European Commission (EC) was again invited to join the Programme as a member.

Representatives of 32 member countries attended the SC meeting as well as IPGRI, FAO, the EC, the European Consortium for Organic Plant Breeding (ECO-PB) and ProSpecieRara, who represented European NGOs involved with PGR. Six non-member countries also attended, including Azerbaijan, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, who declared their intention to join the next Phase of ECPGR.

A total budget of nearly 2.2 million Euro was approved for five years.