Brussels, 24/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 24 March, Commissioner Dacian Ciolos presented the Agriculture Council with a proposal aiming to reinforce the rules on organic production. The Commission's aim is to put an end to derogations, in order to prioritise 100% organic.
The organic sector is a highly dynamic one: consumption quadrupled between 2000 and 2012. As production within the EU only doubled, imports plugged the demand.
The Commission wishes to review the 2007 regulation for several reasons: the extremely critical report by the Court of Auditors on checks ; fraud ; the calling into question of the credibility of the adoption criteria for substances used ; unequal treatment between European organic producers and those of third countries.
Production. Most of the existing derogations will go. It will no longer be possible for farms to be mixed (conventional and organic), they will have to be 100% organic. Animal feed in organic farms must be 100% organic (current tolerance of 5% of non-organic proteins). No pesticide residues are allowed in organic farming, but there is a fairly limited list of authorised products. Currently, the rules are not clear when it comes to the detection of an unauthorised substance. The idea is to agree on a system laying down a very low limit. There are plans to keep in place derogations in the event of natural disasters, together with a transitional period before certain derogations come to an end.
Checks. Currently, one check a year is carried out on organic farms. In future, checks will take place on the basis of risk analysis whilst keeping in place random checks into 20% of producers (one check for each farm every five years).
International. The Commission wishes to move away from a system of equivalence to a system of compliance. Third countries will have to comply with the same rules as the EU in order to be able to sell to the EU. However, the Commission is keeping the system of equivalence in place for 11 countries (USA, India, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Costa Rica, Israel, Tunisia, Switzerland, Canada and Japan) and there are 17 others, including China, for which similar agreements are pending. There are currently around 60 different standards in third countries. (LC)