EU agriculture ministers, meeting in Brussels on Monday 12 December, acknowledged the current stalemate on organic farming (see EUROPE 11684 and 11683).
European Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan felt, nonetheless, that the issue was not deadlocked and that discussion must continue in order to find a solution under the Maltese presidency of the Council in the first half of 2017. “I’m not going to withdraw the proposal and I call on the institutions to show flexibility”, he said.
Some countries, such as France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Cyprus, felt that an agreement was still possible on condition that more work was done on the compromise text. Others felt that a pause for reflection until the start of next year was needed to consider the way forward in the negotiations.
Virtually all the ministers, including those from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Bulgaria, the United Kingdom, Croatia, Cyprus, Slovenia and Italy, withdrew their opposition to the Commission’s desire to introduce thresholds for the presence of plant health products in organic produce. Before putting these thresholds in place, however, the information needs to be available to measure the impact on the sectors, France argued.
Italy, Belgium and France in particular opposed provisions authorising off-ground cultivation (i.e. in containers) of organic products.
By contrast, the Austrian minister, well known for his forthrightness, said that the organic dossier was “dead”. The Czech Republic, too, called for a halt to be brought after three years of fruitless negotiations on this issue. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)