On Thursday 8 October, under the urgency procedure, the European Parliament approved the postponement of the entry into force of the new regulation on organic farming by one year (to 1 January 2022) (see EUROPE 12553/11).
“This postponement is necessary in order to ensure a smooth transition and to allow Member States to be fully ready to implement the new rules”, said EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski.
The European Parliament approved the text by 683 votes to three, with eight abstentions.
Norbert Lins (EPP, Germany), the Chair of the European Parliament Committee on Agriculture, welcomed the vote, which gives organic farmers “a chance to breathe and focus now on what is crucial: maintaining their production in these turbulent Covid-19 times”.
Because of the health crisis, “operators are therefore concentrating their efforts on maintaining organic production and trade flows and do not have the capacity to prepare for the entry into force of the new regulatory framework at the same time. It is therefore extremely likely that Member States and operators will not be in a position to ensure that the Regulation is correctly implemented and applied from 1 January 2021, as originally planned”, says the new Regulation, which has not yet been ratified by the Council of the EU. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)