European Union: new proposal on organic farming

The Commission presented to the ministers a proposal for a regulation on organic production and labelling of organic products. In December last year, the Council was briefed on the main results of the public consultation on organic farming conducted by the Commission (17375/13). The Commission proposes a review of the legal and political aspects of organic production and farming in Europe. The proposal acknowledges that the current EU policy on organic production contains drawbacks (complex legislation and unclear provisions, deficiencies in the control system and in the trade regime, significant administrative burden, lack of opportunities for EU producers…). Both the current legislation on organic farming and the European organic action plan should be modernised.

The main elements of the new Commission's proposal are the following:

• Production rules are harmonised by removing exceptions, except in very specific circumstances;
• The agricultural ingredients used in the composition of organic processed products have to be exclusively organic;
• Organic operators other than farmers or operators producing seaweed or aquaculture animals (except micro-enterprises) are required to develop a system for improving their environmental performance;
• The control system is integrated into a single legislative text (Commission's proposal for a Regulation on official controls);
• A system of group certification is introduced for small-scale farmers in the EU;
• Specific provisions are introduced for purposes of enhanced traceability and fraud prevention;
• The trade regime is adapted. The possibility of equivalence agreements with third countries remains while the system of unilateral equivalency is phased out;

The Presidency will start the examination of the legislative proposal in the coming weeks.