Roderick Galdes, Maltese Secretary of State for Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Rights told MEPs in Brussels on Thursday 26 January that resumption of the inter-institutional negotiations on organic farming was planned for 22 March.
The talks on organic farming among the three institutions failed in December of last year (see EUROPE 11687). A further trialogue meeting – the 15th – has been scheduled for 22 March. Galdes reminded the members of the agriculture committee that the issue was “politically sensitive” and that differences remained on several points. “We need to get on with it and work with the member states to find a way out of the current deadlock”, he stated. The outcome of this 15th trialogue will give an indication on the follow-up to be given, the Maltese Presidency of the Council indicated.
Rapporteur Martin Haüsling (Greens/EFA, Germany) said that four points still have to be resolved: growing organic produce in greenhouses, thresholds for the presence of pesticides, seeds and monitoring. He called on the Commission to show a spirit of compromise on the issue of thresholds (neither Parliament nor Council wants thresholds to be set before a Commission report in 2020).
Norbert Lins (EPP, Germany) also criticised the Commission’s attitude and the lack of political will to reach agreement.
Éric Andrieu (S&D, France) said that it was important to “keep cool heads” and expressed the hope that the Maltese Presidency comes to the trialogue with a “real negotiating mandate”. He made the point that the positions of the Council and the Parliament on thresholds were virtually the same.
“Perhaps we should have another look at our negotiating strategy”, said Julie Girling (ECR, UK), unwilling to accept that people say the Parliament had worked well but not the other institutions. Extra effort would be required if a result that satisfied everyone was to be achieved, she stressed. Elisabeth Köstinger (EPP, Austria) spoke about organic seeds (incentives have to be put in place, she said, to find organic seeds). Peter Jahr (EPP, Germany) argued that finding a compromise on thresholds would break the deadlock. The Commission would have to be a bit more flexible, however. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)