Brussels, 15/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament is seeking agreement on organic farming, including in the difficult areas of the presence of pesticides in organic products (contamination thresholds), inspections and mixed farming.
Following the Council's general approach of mid-June, discussion on organic farming continued on Wednesday 15 July with the European Parliament's agriculture committee.
Rapporteur Martin Häusling (Greens/EFA, Germany) has more than 1,500 amendments on his desk. These amendments relate to groups of undertakings, the issue of seeds (where, in the rapporteur's view, a tighter definition is required) and production rules, he said. The main issue for Häusling is mixed farms, which is the subject of a great many amendments. Häusling is of the view that, in the long term (within ten years), mixed farms, that is those that have both organic and conventional farming, should no longer exist. Many other MEPs challenge this view. On the issue of the presence of unauthorised substances, the rapporteur feels that organic farming is not defined solely by a lack of pesticides. There are other criteria on how the soil and animals are managed. He believes that what is needed is a move to better monitoring.
Ivan Jakovic (ALDE, Croatia), shadow rapporteur, believes that a limit value (threshold) has to be set for the presence of unauthorised substances (as the Commission would like, though not the Council which is opposed to any such thresholds).
Eric Andrieu (S&D, France), shadow rapporteur, said that mixed farms had to be retained without limit of time. On contamination thresholds, Andrieu argued that de-certification is legitimate where the farmer is responsible for the contamination but, when the farmer is the victim of contamination from another source, setting a threshold does not seem appropriate to him. He advocates more progressive measures (period of investigation, until 2020) to identify the causes of the pollution. The Commission proposes a system of compulsory annual inspections. Andrieu believes that the system of annual checks should be kept in place but it must be harmonised.
Lidia Senra Rodriguez (GUE/NGL, Spain) opposed setting contamination thresholds, taking the view that prevention is better. She also called for seeds and for the different local animal varieties and species to be protected. (Lionel Changeur)