There is wide consensus that there is urgent need for compiling a catalogue for commercial tobacco varieties and to agree on harmonised variety registration and seed certification procedures. Variety development work is a long-standing, important part of tobacco research programmes in every tobacco producing state in Europe. It has already been stated that plant breeding should have as a principal objective the development of new varieties that fulfill the requirements of both the leaf-grower and consumer. A common approach to the release, testing and registration procedures should be the natural extension of such pro-grammes for the acceptance of new varieties by farmer and manufacturer. At the same time, plant breeders' rights have to be protected. UPOV provides guidelines, which can be adapted to achieve both these requirements, in spite of the unusual situation of tobacco in overall agricultural regulation.