EU member state experts, at a meeting of the Special Committee on Agriculture on Monday 20 November, approved the compromise on revision of organic farming rules provisionally agreed with the European Parliament on 20 June (see EUROPE 11819).
The Czech Republic, Lithuania, Slovakia, Cyprus, Austria and Finland voted against the decision and Hungary, Belgium and Germany abstained.
The text will be put to the European Parliament’s agriculture committee on 22 November. Then, if it is passed as it stands by that committee, it will be put to a vote in plenary session. The Council of the EU will then be able to adopt it formally, without making any amendments. “I am certain that the European Parliament agriculture committee will now do the same and back the compromise”, said Parliament rapporteur Martin Häusling (Greens/EFA, Germany). The new rules should come into effect on 1 January 2021
The European Commission has, for several months, been engaged in a “clean-up” of the text following very complicated negotiations (18 inter-institutional trialogue negotiating meetings over 20 months).
Broadly, the new legislation will harmonise practices within the EU and with third countries and will modernise the monitoring system.
The Commission’s initial objective was to end all the derogations put in place by the member states but, ultimately, some will be retained – such as authorisation of next farms (producing both organic and conventional crops). The new rules will also put an end to the current system of equivalence with the rules of third countries and bring in a “compliance” mechanism, except with countries with which mutual recognition agreements have been signed. Checks will be extended to all links in the supply chain but will be simplified.
European Commissioner Phil Hogan hailed “another milestone for the organic sector, which ensures that this important and rapidly growing sector can continue to expand with clear rules and can be assured of being on an equal footing with producers from non-EU countries. What everyone agreed on was that the current rules – which are 20 years old now – were not fit for purpose and were likely to hinder rather than help the development of this growing sector”. (Original version in French)