Résumé
The European Prunus database (EPDB) was created under the auspices of IPGRI (International Plant Genetic Resources Institute) twenty years ago and was first maintained in Sweden. In the nineties, the EPDB was transferred to INRA research centre of Bordeaux and developed to become an interactive database. The accessions incorporated in the database mainly originate from Europe and should have at least passport data and also characterisation data: common (primary) and specific (secondary) descriptors were agreed by the European Prunus Working Group. Public availability is planned at the beginning of 2005 and different queries are under development for the database. With the support of the European Union from 1996 to 1999, a European network on Prunus genetic resources was organised by IPGRI in the context of the European Cooperative Programme for Crop Genetic Resources (ECP/GR). More than 20 countries are involved in the survey of national collections. At present the permanent collections have more than 8 000 accessions for which passport and characterisation data are registered in the EPDB and available via the Internet site of IPGRI. However the web interface to allow direct search is still under development. Concerning European Collections, plans for establishing a Decentralised European Prunus Collection (DEPC) have been established. It is agreed that each country is responsible for its own genetic resources. Not all the material held in national collections is eligible for the DEPC but it concerns essentially original genetic resources responding to the sovereign rights of states over the Prunus European cooperative programme for genetic resources: their natural resources as proposed by the Convention of Biological Diversity originating from the Rio Conference in 1992. Furthermore contacts have been established between the Prunus and Malus/Pyrus Working Groups in order to establish common strategies for stone and pome fruit genetic resources at the European level