IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR PLANT BREEDERS - We would like to inform all applicants that a decision was taken by the European Commission in 2019 to update the CPVO fees regulation. This decision has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 29 November 2019.
The most significant update concerns examination fees, which are linked to the costs the CPVO pays examination offices for technical examinations. These fees were adjusted to match the real costs of the technical examinations per group category. The new fees are applicable as of 1st April 2020.
What has changed on 1st April 2020?
For all applications with an application date on 1st April 2020 or later, the following fees are applicable:
- Application fees: whilst online application fees remain unchanged (EUR 450), paper-based applications now costs EUR 800 instead of EUR 650 previously. Applicants benefiting from the online fee shall only receive electronic communications with the CPVO during the entire application procedure.
- Examination fees: examination fees are adjusted to reflect the real costs charged by the Examination Offices for each group category – as per the table available below.
- Annual fees: annual fees remain unchanged.
Examination fee per group category - as of 1st April 2020:
|
|
Cost group |
Fee (in EUR) |
|
Agricultural group |
|
|
|
1 |
Potato |
2 050 |
|
2 |
Oilseed rape |
2 150 |
|
3 |
Grasses |
2 920 |
|
4 |
Other agricultural species |
1 900 |
|
Fruit group |
|
|
|
5 |
Apple |
3 665 |
|
6 |
Strawberry |
3 400 |
|
7 |
Other fruit species |
3 460 |
|
Ornamental group |
|
|
|
8 |
Ornamental living greenhouse |
2 425 |
|
9 |
Ornamental living outdoor |
2 420 |
|
10 |
Ornamental non-living greenhouse |
2 400 |
|
11 |
Ornamental non-living outdoor |
2 200 |
|
12 |
Ornamental special |
3 900 |
|
Vegetable group |
|
|
|
13 |
Vegetable greenhouse |
2 920 |
|
14 |
Vegetable outdoor |
2 660 |
Background
The CPVO is a demand-driven agency. Whilst revenues generated by annual fees are relatively stable, revenues generated by application fees and examination fees vary significantly from year to year. As regards costs, the principal component are the examination costs and costs for staff.
The CPVO aims to set fees in order to have a balanced budget, and also to respect its Administrative Council decision that the free reserve should be of the order of 50% of the payments budget. In this respect, fees payable to the CPVO by applicants should be reviewed every 4 years.
In March 2019, the CPVO Administrative Council invited the European Commission to update the fees regulation to ensure full cost recovery for technical examinations and to keep the annual fees unchanged (Regulation (EC) No 1238/95). The fees were adopted on a proposal of the CPVO Administrative Council and after a public consultation organised by the European Commission.
More:
The CPVO has updated the “Notes for applicants” in the chapter 7 and in the 3 annexes regarding the increase of the application fee to be paid for paper applications and the increase of the examination fees. The CPVO has also updated the "Notes on the completion of the application form" . Both documents are available in 5 languages: English, Dutch, German, French, and Spanish.
The Fees & Payments webpage was also updated on 1st April 2020.