SPG Meeting | January 2023

Marien Valstar (1964) is the Senior policy officer for Seeds and Propagating Materials in the Directorate-General for Agro and Nature in the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality of the Netherlands.

His work focuses on national, European and global policies related to Plant Variety Protection and registration and certification of plant varieties. Current Responsibilities in the Netherlands: Seed Law, Plant Breeders Law, Plant Variety Board /Variety testing Representative of the Netherlands in European Council Working parties and Standing Committees on Seeds of the European Commission.

From October 2019 to October 2022, President of the Council of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV). UPOV is an intergovernmental organisation. Its mission is to provide and promote an effective plant variety protection system to encourage the development of new varieties of plants for the benefit of society.

He is the current President of the Administrative Council of the European Community Plant Variety Office.

Mr Valstar graduated from Wageningen University and Research (1988), where he studied Horticulture.

Dr Edgar Krieger has extensive experience in the field of Intellectual Property protection for plant innovation and has held the position of the CIOPORA Secretary General since 2004.

Before CIOPORA, Dr Krieger worked as a lawyer at an international law firm specializing in IP protection, particularly Plant Breeder’s Rights, advising agricultural breeders in several hundred court cases up to the European Court of Justice. He holds a Law Degree from the University of Bonn and a Degree in Business Administration from the Aachen University of Applied Sciences. He completed his doctoral dissertation on the topic “Farmers’ Exemption in Germany” at the Philipps University of Marburg.