On Monday 27 February, the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU noted the existence of a qualified majority in favour of its draft compromise on organic farming (see EUROPE 11730).
The delegations from the Special Agriculture Committee (CSA) granted the Maltese Presidency a renewed mandate for negotiating with the European Parliament a final agreement on organic farming. The next trilogue meeting on this issue takes place on Wednesday 8 March. The Council Presidency submitted a compromise text on outstanding issues, such as pesticides, seeds, annual controls and hydroponic growing of plants in greenhouses or polytunnels (see EUROPE 11726).
The Maltese Presidency achieved its goal and managed to achieve a qualified majority agreement after quite some effort. Several countries voted against the amended negotiating mandate, namely Austria, Greece, the Netherlands, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Belgium and Cyprus, mainly over measures relating to the presence of pesticides in organic food. Italy is quite critical on the question of pesticides and highly attached to the notion of connections with the land. Poland and Bulgaria issued scrutiny reserves.
Germany and France backed the Maltese Presidency’s compromise text. France wants above all to avoid, creating different situations in different countries for non-authorised substances and says a compensation system must be worked out for farmers who fall victim to contamination. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)