The Slovak Presidency of the Council is trying to persuade the member states to revise the negotiating brief so that a compromise can be reached with MEPs on the reform of organic farming legislation. The next trialogue meeting is scheduled for 28 September.
The European Parliament and the Council failed in June to come to an agreement on organic farming (see EUROPE 11581). In order to facilitate a compromise, the Council will have to review its position, in particular on the structure of the text. The questions to be decided are which part of the text should be put into the annexes and what is to be the balance between delegated acts (on which the Parliament has a right of scrutiny) and implementing acts.
The member states will also have to make concessions on the sensitive issues of residues of banned substances (pesticides) and checks on organic production. The agriculture ministries of the EU member states found great difficulty in reaching common ground on these two issues.
On the sidelines of the informal Agriculture Council in Bratislava on 12 September, member state experts on the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) held an initial discussion on the Council mandate on organic farming. Taking the progress report produced by the Dutch Presidency in June as the starting point, the Slovak Presidency called during the summer on the delegations to submit their comments on the issues where concessions were possible. A compromise text focusing on livestock production rules was presented at the SCA meeting on 12 September. This was generally well received by the experts and the Presidency intends now to extend this approach to the other sensitive issues in organic farming, with a view to being granted a new mandate at the SCA meeting on 26 September. Discussions between the Council and the Parliament will resume on 28 September. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)