Legislation Tracker

The European Union has not proposed or adopted a specific administrative, policy or legislative measure requiring or incentivising users of DSI to contribute to the Cali Fund. Instead, the European Commission has focused on awareness-raising, stakeholder engagement and consultation with the private sector and EU Member States to build understanding of Decision 16/2 and explore potential approaches to incentivising contributions.

No legislative or administrative measure has been proposed. In its February 2026 submission under notification 2026-006, the EU reported an awareness-raising campaign led by the European Commission: bilateral meetings with trade associations and companies, sessions of the EU ABS Consultation Forum (including a Spring 2025 session with the CBD Executive Secretary), and regular DSI Expert Group meetings with Member States to discuss incentives and whether action is best taken at national, regional or international level. The Commission also launched internal consultations on joining the Friends of the Cali Fund, organised a DSI Global Dialogue (March 2026) and a database roundtable on paragraph 10 of Decision 16/2 (January 2026), and is exploring synergies with the BBNJ Agreement, the ITPGRFA and the WHO Pandemic Agreement. Among Member States, Malta has added clauses to its ABS permits encouraging voluntary contributions to the Cali Fund, Belgium has launched a stakeholder dialogue, and Hungary has translated the Cali Fund guide.

March 2026 - DSI Global Dialogue: The European Commission organised a global workshop bringing together CBD Parties, DSI users, IPLCs, civil society and experts. The dialogue aimed to build common understanding of Decision 16/2, strengthen mutual trust and address outstanding implementation issues ahead of COP17.

27 January 2026 - EU DSI Database Roundtable: The European Commission, EMBL-EBI, DSMZ and other research infrastructures convened European database operators to discuss implementation of paragraph 10 of Decision 16/2. The discussion examined implementation challenges and potential measures to strengthen alignment with the Multilateral Mechanism

Spring 2025 - EU ABS Consultation Forum – Cali Fund Session: The European Commission held a dedicated session on Decision 16/2 and the Cali Fund, with the CBD Executive Secretary engaging EU stakeholders. Discussions focused on the scope of the decision, its interaction with national ABS frameworks and private-sector perspectives on benefit-sharing.

Regulation (EU) No 511/2014 on compliance measures for users from the Nagoya Protocol, and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1866. The Regulation imposes due-diligence obligations on users of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge accessed after 12 October 2014; it does not cover DSI. Rules on access to genetic resources are left to individual Member States.

The EU ABS framework is a user-compliance regime: users must exercise due diligence that genetic resources were accessed in line with provider-country law, file due-diligence declarations at the research-funding and final product-development stages, and are checked by national competent authorities in each Member State. Because DSI falls outside Regulation 511/2014, contributions to the Cali Fund remain voluntary for EU users, and the Commission has prioritised awareness-raising and building common understanding of Decision 16/2.