Article 23
1
Notwithstanding Article 20(1) and (2), Member States may:
a
authorise producers on their own territory to place on the market small quantities of seed for scientific or selection purposes;
b
authorise breeders and their representatives established in their territory to market, for a limited period, seed belonging to a variety for which an application for inclusion in a national catalogue has been submitted in at least one Member State and for which specific technical information has been submitted.
2
The conditions under which Member States may grant the authorisations referred to in paragraph (b) above shall be determined in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 46(2), particularly as regards the acquisition of data, the type of data, the storage and name of the variety and the labelling of packages.
3
Authorisations granted before 14 December 1998 by Member States to producers in their own territory for the purposes set out in paragraph 1 shall remain in force pending determination of the provisions referred to in paragraph 2. Thereafter, all such authorisations shall respect the provisions established in accordance with paragraph 2.