Chapter II, Article 5 · FRM Regulation

Contents

Article 5Requirements for the marketing of FRM#

1.FRM of the ‘source-identified’, ‘selected’, ‘qualified’ or ‘tested’ categories shall be marketed within the Union only if it:

(a)is accompanied by an official label issued pursuant to Article 20 (‘official label’) by:

(i)the competent authorities; or

(ii)the professional operator under the official supervision of the competent authorities;

(b)complies with paragraph 2;

(c)is accompanied by a professional operator’s document issued pursuant to Article 20 (‘professional operator’s document’); and

(d)is free from quality pests and the symptoms caused by them, or the presence of such pests on that FRM is so low that those pests do not adversely affect its quality.

2.FRM shall be marketed by professional operators in accordance with the following rules:

(a)FRM of the tree species listed in Annex I and their natural hybrids shall be marketed only if it is of the categories ‘source-identified’, ‘selected’, ‘qualified’ or ‘tested’ and has been derived from basic material which has been approved pursuant to Article 4;

(b)FRM of the artificial hybrids of the tree species listed in Annex I shall be marketed only if it is of the ‘selected’, ‘qualified’ or ‘tested’ categories and has been derived from basic material which has been approved pursuant to Article 4;

(c)FRM of the tree species listed in Annex I and their hybrids which contains or consists of genetically modified organisms, including category 2 NGT plants as defined in Article 3, point (14), of Regulation (EU) 2026/1388, shall be marketed only if:

(i)it is of the ‘tested’ category;

(ii)it has been derived from basic material which has been approved pursuant to Article 4; and

(iii)it is authorised for cultivation in the Union pursuant to Article 19 of Directive 2001/18/EC or Articles 7 and 19 of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003, or, where applicable, Chapter III of Regulation (EU) 2026/1388, and that cultivation is not excluded in the Member State concerned in accordance with Article 26b of Directive 2001/18/EC;

(d)FRM of the tree species listed in Annex I and their hybrids which contains or consists of a category 1 NGT plant as defined in Article 3, point (13), of Regulation (EU) 2026/1388 shall be marketed only if:

(i)it is of the ‘tested’ category;

(ii)it has been derived from basic material which has been approved pursuant to Article 4 of this Regulation; and

(iii)the plant has obtained a declaration of category 1 NGT plant status pursuant to Article 6 or 7 of Regulation (EU) 2026/1388 or is progeny of such plant or plants;

(e)FRM marketed in accordance with this Regulation shall comply with the rules laid down, or provided for, in the relevant provisions of Regulation (EU) 2016/2031 concerning Union quarantine pests, protected zone quarantine pests and Union regulated non-quarantine pests, and with the measures adopted pursuant to Article 30(1) of that Regulation.

3.In the case of seed lots, FRM of the tree species listed in Annex I and their hybrids shall be marketed only if, in addition to compliance with paragraph 2 of this Article, information is available as regards:

(a)the purity, as measured by the percentage by weight of pure seed, other seed and inert matter;

(b)the germination percentage of the pure seed or, in cases where germination testing is impossible or impractical, the viability percentage of the pure seed assessed by reference to a specified method;

(c)the weight of 1000 pure seeds;

(d)the number of germinable seeds per kilogram or litre of product marketed as seed or, where the number of germinable seeds is impossible or impractical to assess, the number of viable seeds per kilogram or litre;

(e)for artificial hybrids, the hybrid percentage.

In the case of small quantities, the requirements as laid down in points (b), (d) and (e) of the first subparagraph of this paragraph do not have to be fulfilled.

4.The Commission shall adopt implementing acts to determine what constitutes a small quantity, as referred to in paragraph 3, second subparagraph of this Article, in relation to individual species. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 32(2).

5.By way of derogation from paragraph 3, where it is necessary to make seed of the current season’s crop rapidly available, FRM may be marketed to the first buyer before the examination in respect of germination as laid down in paragraph 3, first subparagraph, points (b) and (d), has been concluded. The professional operator shall inform the buyer as soon as possible about the compliance with the conditions laid down in paragraph 3, first subparagraph, points (b) and (d). A professional operator that intends to make use of the derogation provided for in this paragraph shall notify the competent authorities of that intention once.

6.The categories under which FRM from the different types of basic material may be marketed are as set out in the table in Annex VI.

7.The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 31(2), amending the table in Annex VI.Those amendments shall adapt the categories under which FRM from the different types of basic material may be marketed to reflect the developments in scientific or technical knowledge and the development of applicable international standards.

Defined terms · 47

Show every defined term

afforestation
means the establishment of forest through planting or deliberate seeding, including the planting or deliberate seeding of regionally adapted tree species, on land that was, until then, under a different land use and implies a transformation of land use from non-forest to forest;
autochthonous seed source or stand
means a seed source or stand which has been continuously and naturally regenerated or which has been artificially regenerated from FRM collected in the same seed source or stand or in other autochthonous seed sources or stands in close proximity to that seed source or stand;
basic material
means any of the following types of material as referred to in the table set out in Annex VI: seed source, stand, seed orchard, parents of a family, clone or clonal mixture;
category
means the classification of FRM as source-identified, selected, qualified or tested material;
clonal mixture
means a mixture of identified clones in defined proportions;
clone
means a single individual or group of individuals (ramets) derived originally from a single individual (ortet) by vegetative propagation, for example by cuttings, micropropagation, grafts, layers or divisions, or derived originally from cell lines;
competent authority
means:
delegated body
means a separate legal person to which the competent authority has delegated certain official control tasks or certain tasks related to other official activities;
deployment area
means the area designated by the competent authorities in which FRM belonging to the ‘qualified’ and ‘tested’ categories is adapted to the climatic and ecological conditions of that area;
documentary check
means the examination of master certificates and other documents;
FOREMATIS
means the Forest Reproductive Material Information System of the Commission;
foundation stock
means a plant, group of plants, FRM, DNA stock or genetic information of the clone, or clones in case of clonal mixture, that serves as reference material for the verification of the identity of the clone or clones concerned;
FRM
means seed units, parts of plants and planting stock that belong to tree species listed in Annex I and their hybrids and are intended to be used for afforestation, reforestation, diversification in a forest plot and other tree planting and direct seeding, for one or more of the following purposes:
genetically modified organism
means a genetically modified organism as defined in Article 2, point (2), of Directive 2001/18/EC, excluding organisms obtained through the techniques of genetic modification listed in Annex I B to that Directive;
in the right place
means that the FRM is genetically and phenotypically suited to the site where it is grown, including the relevant climate projections for it.
indigenous seed source or stand
means a seed source or stand located in a specific region of provenance that is part of the natural distribution range of the species concerned, raised from seed or vegetatively propagated, the origin of which is situated within the same region of provenance;
location of the basic material
means the geographical area or geographical position or positions of the basic material, as appropriate for each category of FRM;
lot
means any of the following: a seed lot, a seed unit lot, a plant lot or a parts of plants lot;
lot code
means the identification code of a lot;
marketing
means the following actions conducted by a professional operator in relation to FRM, whether free of charge or not:
natural regeneration
means the renewal of the forest by natural processes, including natural seeding, sprouting, suckering or layering;
official certification
means both the procedure leading to the issuance, and the issuance itself, of either a master certificate or of an official label, in accordance with this Regulation;
official controls
means activities to verify compliance with this Regulation performed by the competent authorities responsible for the organisation of those activities or by the bodies to which or the natural persons to whom certain of those activities have been delegated;
origin
means the following:
other official activities
means activities concerning the approval of basic material and the production and marketing of FRM other than official controls, performed by the competent authorities or by the bodies to which or the natural persons to whom certain of those activities have been delegated;
parents of a family
means trees used as parents to obtain progeny by controlled or open pollination of one identified parent used as a female with the pollen of one parent (full sibling) or a number of identified or unidentified parents (half-sibling);
parts of plants
means stem cuttings, with or without roots, leaf cuttings and root cuttings, explants or embryos used for micropropagation, buds, layers, roots, scions and any other parts of a plant used for the production of planting stock;
parts of plants lot
means a set of parts of plants collected and processed uniformly;
plant lot
means a set of plants that have been grown from a single seed lot or from vegetatively propagated planting stock which has been raised in a delineable area and processed uniformly;
planting stock
means any plant or part of a plant used in plant propagation and comprises plants raised from seed units, from parts of plants or from plants from natural regeneration;
production
means all stages in the generation of lots of FRM for marketing, including the harvesting, collection, storage, processing and distribution, and the dispatching during those stages, as well as the conversion of seed unit lots and parts of plants lots and the growing, multiplying, maintaining, storage and harvesting of plant lots;
professional operator
means any natural or legal person professionally in charge of the production or marketing, or both, of FRM;
provenance
means the name of the place in which any seed source or stand is growing;
qualified
means a category of FRM derived from basic material consisting of seed orchards, parents of a family, clones or clonal mixtures, the components of which have been selected at the individual level and which meets the requirements set out in Annex IV;
quality pests
means pests:
reforestation
means the re-establishment of forest through planting, deliberate seeding, vegetative propagation or natural regeneration on land classified as forest;
region of provenance
means the area or group of areas subject to sufficiently uniform ecological conditions in which stands or seed sources showing similar phenotypic or genetic characteristics are found, taking into account, where appropriate, altitudinal boundaries;
seed lot
means a set of seeds collected from approved basic material and processed uniformly;
seed orchard
means a plantation of selected trees where each individual tree is identified by a clone or family and that plantation is isolated or managed in order to avoid or reduce pollination from outside sources and managed to produce frequent, abundant and easily harvested crops of seed units;
seed source
means the trees within a defined area from which FRM is collected;
seed unit
means cones, infructescences, fruits and seeds intended for the production of planting stock or for direct seeding;
seed unit lot
means a set of seed units collected from approved basic material and processed uniformly;
selected
means a category of FRM derived from basic material consisting of a stand located within a single region of provenance, which has been selected at the population level and which meets the requirements set out in Annex III;
source-identified
means a category of FRM derived from basic material consisting of either a seed source or a stand located within a single region of provenance and which meets the requirements set out in Annex II;
stand
means a delineated population of trees which is sufficiently uniform in composition;
tested
means a category of FRM derived from basic material consisting of stands, seed orchards, parents of a family, clones or clonal mixtures, where the superiority of that FRM has been demonstrated by comparative testing or an estimate of the superiority of the FRM has been calculated on the basis of the genetic evaluation of the components of the basic material, and which meets the requirements set out in Annex V;
unit of approval
means the entire area of basic material or one or more individuals of basic material intended for the production of FRM that has been authorised by the competent authorities;