The Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2020! The Community Plant Variety Rights (CPVR) system, based on the 1991 Act of the UPOV Convention, is the largest and most efficient regional system for plant variety rights’ protection in the world. Over the past 25 years, the CPVO processed nearly 70 000 applications and granted over 53 000 plant variety right’s titles. Today, almost 30 000 new plant varieties are being protected in the European Union by the CPVO.

At the occasion of CPVO’s 25th anniversary, we have compiled key information about the the CPVR system and, in particular, relevant explanations detailing:

• Why Intellectual Property rights for the protection of new plant varieties is relevant to address today’s global demands and challenges
• What are the benefits of the CPVR system managed by the CPVO
• How to file applications for Community Plant Variety Rights (CPVR)
• How are applications processed by the CPVO
• What are the key statistics for the period 1995-2020, including the top species that have been granted CPVR protection over the past 25 years

You can download below a full PDF copy of the new CPVO leaflet: Protecting New Plant Varieties in Europe since 1995.

The Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2020.

This is an excellent opportunity to turn the spotlight on some of the CPVO people who work on a daily basis to serve our stakeholders and make the Community Plant Variety Rights system work in the most professional and efficient way possible.

The CPVO employs circa 50 people, of different background and expertise, and is organised in various units and sectors. The CPVO organisation chart provides a clear view on how we are structured.

The CPVO team is gender-balanced and composed of over 12 different nationalities. Every member of staff has a valuable profile and level of expertise in a relevant function which is instrumental to the well-functioning of the organisation. CPVO’ staff are valued for their high level of professional ethics and commitment.  

In an effort to exhibit the human dimension of the CPVO and the specific competences of our staff, 33 colleagues have accepted to show who they are and explain the value of their daily contribution to the system through portrait pictures and testimonials.

Each one of these colleagues will be put under the spotlight on the CPVO twitter account during March and April 2020, but you can already consult all portraits and read the testimonials at once on this public photo gallery.

All CPVO sectors and job profiles are represented in these portraits. We’ve collected testimonials from managers, experts and assistants from the legal, technical, registry, denomination, IT, human resources, accounting, and procurement sectors.

As you can see, CPVO’s people profiles and roles are truly diverse. We are all united in one big team and we are gathered to achieve a noble mission: Delivering and promoting an efficient Intellectual Property Rights system that supports the creation of new plant varieties for the benefit of Society.

We look forward to keeping delivering on these missions in the months and years to come, and in maintaining our constructive collaboration with CPVO’s institutional partners and stakeholders!

• Financing details discussed with Prime Minister Mitsotakis and Migration Minister Mitarachi
• €200 million initial EIB support to support housing, health, water and sanitation
• Long-term education, skills and training investment for both refugees and host communities
• Greece to be key focus of expanded EIB Economic Resilience Initiative

During a visit to Athens today Andrew McDowell, European Investment Bank Vice President, discussed strengthened EIB support to help Greece cope with migrants and refugees with Prime Minister Mitsotakis and Migration Minister Mitarachi.

Two EIB initiatives were discussed with the Prime Minister. They include immediate use of €200 million of EIB financing, already approved for infrastructure investment in combination with EU structural funds, to support priority investment in public services in districts hosting migrants and refugees and expansion of the EIB’s Economic Resilience Initiative to Greece and other EU member states most impacted by hosting large numbers of migrants and refugees.

“New financing for small business in areas impacted by the migration crisis is essential for host communities on islands most impacted by migration crisis. The EIB’s firm support for new private sector investment, as well as water sanitation, health and housing investments, will help Greece to accelerate assistance for migrants, refugees and host communities in regions most impacted by the current crisis. This demonstrates the EIB’s solidarity with Greece in this unprecedented time. The fruitful discussions today between Vice President McDowell, the Prime Minister and my team have identified how the EU Bank can support both short and long term investment that will strengthen response to migration in Greece. Detailed plans will be finalised in the coming weeks.” said Notis Mitarachi, Greek Minister for Migration and Asylum.

“As the EU Bank, the European Investment Bank is standing by Greece at a time of need. In recent years Greece has taken impressive measures to host hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees and host communities have welcomed desperate families into their communities. Recent developments call for accelerated engagement by Greece’s European partners and I am pleased to confirm to Prime Minister Mitsotakis and Migration Minister Mitarakis that the EIB stands ready to do more. Ensuring increased provision of basic services and long-term investment is essential. The new initiatives outlined today build on the EIB’s strong track record of engagement in Greece and the Economic Resilience Initiative outside the EU in recent years. My colleagues and I look forward to redoubling our efforts over the coming weeks and months to enable Europe to contribute to priority investment here in Greece.” said Andrew McDowell, European Investment Bank Vice President.

New investment to support public services for migrants, refugees and host communities

The European Investment Bank has been working with Greek authorities in recent months to develop a dedicated public sector investment package intended to improve housing, health, water and sanitation infrastructure in districts where public services are under considerable strain due to the recent influx of migrants and refugees.

The EIB is expected to provide €200 million of dedicated financing to support short-term priority infrastructure for both refugees and host communities. Longer-term investment will support economic resilience through education, vocational training and skills programs.

Expansion of the Economic Resilience Initiative to frontline EU member states

The EIB is currently examining how to expand the Economic Resilience Initiative to support priority investment in Greece and other EU countries that host migrants and refugees.

This would enable the EIB to significantly increase financing and technical assistance for public sector infrastructure and private sector activity in Greece over the next two years.

The European Investment Bank launched the €6 billion Economic Resilience Initiative in 2016 in response to the refugee crisis to support public services, social cohesion and economic investment in the Southern Neighbourhood and Western Balkans.

Since then 93% of the financing and technical assistance under the programme has been approved.

The Economic Resilience Initiative enables financing to exceed the usual 50% of maximum project cost that reflects the specific need for urgent investment.

The EIB financing is expected to be used alongside European Union budget funds to maximise the scale and scope of new investment and would complement recently announced efforts by the European Commission.

The Hague, 6 March 2020

German and Norwegian authorities have taken down an organised criminal group (OCG), involved in the trafficking of illicit drugs between the two countries. Eurojust actively supported this coordinated operation, in which five suspects were arrested, three in Germany and two in Norway. During the investigations, 27 kilos of heroin and one kilo of cocaine were found in a car on the way to Norway. Several places have been searched and more drugs have been seized during following actions in Germany.

Investigations into the OCG started summer last year and indicated an Albanian criminal network was trafficking drugs from Germany to Norway. In close cooperation between the authorities and with support from the German and Norwegian Liaison Bureaus at Europol, a covert operation was started, which led to the arrests and showed the involvement of the OCG.

Eurojust coordinated investigations and actions between the two countries, with involvement of the German desk and Norwegian Liaison Prosecutor at the Agency. Eurojust organised a coordination meeting at its premises and assisted in overcoming legal obstacles, providing judicial advice, including on the agreements of where to prosecute.

Photos © Norwegian Police