Brussels, 05/12/2003 (Agence Europe) - By adopting the report on Thursday in Brussels by Danielle Aroi (Greens/EFA, France) on organic farming, the European Parliament is attempting to prevent abuses as much as possible by some companies using the "organic" label for products which are not organic. EUROPE is able to indicated that the Danone group which got authorisation from the Council in 1999 to use the term "organic" till 2006 for its dairy products, which were not derived from organic farming (with appropriate labelling) as the brand was registered before 1991, the date of the regulation.
While including the main proposal ideas (which aims to amend the 1991 regulation in order to strengthen controls), MEPs also want the derogations to the normal labelling rules, accorded to Danone, for example, for its yoghurts, are eliminated as soon as possible and not only in 2006. MEPs adopted an amendment including chaptalized wine, on the condition that the concentrated must (wort) comes from the production process. The EP rejected (by 260 votes, against 225 with 6 abstentions) a politically sensitive amendment by the Greens, requesting that the farmer, whose organic products have been contaminated by GMO, to be compensated by the polluter.