What is the EU Seed Fraud Network?
The voluntary EU Seed Fraud Network (SFN) was set up in response to some fraudulent cases in relation to official labels and imports of seed lots, with the aim of facilitating the cooperation among the EU countries in matters where the national authorities are confronted with possible intentional violations of the Directives on marketing seed and other plant reproductive material with a cross-border impact.
As the Official Controls Regulation (Regulation (EC) No 882/2004) does not cover the legislation on marketing seed and other plant reproductive material, a voluntary system was set up.
The EU Seed Fraud Network consists of:
- National contact points in all EU countries
- National contact points in Switzerland and Norway
- European Commission
Contact Points of the SFN
The contact points are representatives of the authorities designated by each EU country for the purpose of ensuring cross-border administrative cooperation with their counterparts in the other EU countries in matters of suspected intentional and economically motivated violations.
They use the email system to request information from, or the assistance of, their counterparts in another EU country to pursue investigations or enforcement action in seed fraud matters.
In cases of potential EU relevance (several EU countries involved, potential widespread impact), the Commission services can coordinate a case or follow it up at EU level.
List of the EU Seed Fraud Network contact points.
Contact DG SANTE/G1 Plant Health Unit and G5 Alerts, traceability and committees Unit
- Seed Fraud: SANTE-SEED-FRAUD
ec [dot] europa [dot] eu (SANTE-SEED-FRAUD[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu) - For support: SANTE-SEED-SUPPORTec [dot] europa [dot] eu (SANTE-SEED-SUPPORT[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)