Brussels, 07/05/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Agriculture Ministers of the member states of the EU will have their work cut out, in Brussels on Monday 11 May, if they are to adopt a general approach to a revision of the rules on organic farming.
The Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) of 4 May confirmed the differences of opinion on non-authorised substances (two options proposed by the Latvian Presidency in a compromise text) and the control procedures. The positions of the various sides have not really moved on, meaning that for the time being, there is no compromise at SCA level on these two points. The Agriculture Council will therefore have to tackle these two major elements of the proposal.
Non-authorised substances. On the presence of non-authorised substances in products certified organic, none of the compromises tabled by Latvia (or any other member state) have so far been able to rally a majority. One group of member states fails to see why organic farming products containing banned phytosanitary molecules should be sold as organic. This group includes Italy, Portugal, Spain, the Czech Republic and Belgium. These countries, therefore, support the initial proposal of the European Commission to bring in a threshold beyond which the products would lose their certification. However, a second group of countries (Germany, Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland and, indirectly, France) are calling instead for any notion of threshold to be removed, initially preferring to set in place harmonised rules for the detection of non-authorised substances which may, if necessary, lead to an investigation. These countries feel that certification should not be removed from a product if the producer is not responsible for the contamination.
The latest options proposed by Latvia have not really moved things on. A number of countries (Poland, France, Finland, Croatia, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands and others) have however said that they prefer option 1: investigation to be opened in the event of the discovery of pesticides, product considered not organic in the event of contamination, Commission's report by 31 December 2021 on the presence of non-authorised substances, Commission to adopt implementing acts on: - the methodology to detect and evaluate the presence of pesticides; - procedures (including the withdrawal of the certification) to be followed in the event of contamination.
The Commission and a number of other countries (Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Belgium and Portugal), on the other hand, take the view that only option 2 (based on proposals by the United Kingdom, with thresholds) constitutes a decent compromise, which is flexible and acceptable.
Frequency of controls. As regards controls, the split is still as strong between those in favour of keeping in place annual inspections (Germany, Austria, Romania, Bulgaria, Italy, Hungary, Denmark, Portugal, Belgium, Greece etc) and those in the opposite corner (Poland, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain and others) in favour of the Commission's proposal to move to a risk analysis-based system whereby the historic best performers would not be tested. Initially, the Latvian Presidency suggested, by way of a compromise, obligatory controls every three years together with a mechanism based on the risk analysis. Latvia is now proposing to make controls every two years obligatory. A handful of countries, including France, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the United Kingdom, seem able to get behind the Latvian Presidency's compromise.
Organic at the informal meeting
The theme for the informal meeting of the European agriculture ministers, to be held in Riga (Latvia) on 1 and 2 June, will be organic farming. Latvia hopes that a compromise will have been reached on the revision of the European organic regulation by then, meaning that the work will be able to focus on the future of the sector. The main challenges are relations between organic and conventional farmers, innovation and the development of consumption. The ministers will be asked two questions: what existing political instruments have helped to meet the challenges facing the sector, and what should be done at European and international level in the future to meet these challenges? (Lionel Changeur)