Luxembourg, 26/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - During the Council in Luxembourg on 25 October, a majority of ministers from EU Member States supported the Finnish Presidency's compromise on the labelling of organic products. On 6 November, the Special Agriculture Committee (SAC) bringing together experts from Member States is to examine an amended Presidency proposal on the new rules for the production and labelling of organic products. The other key issue still to be addressed concerns the labelling of organic products in the event of accidental GMO contamination. EU agriculture ministers may reach a political agreement on the issue during their December meeting.
A large majority of Member States accepted the approach proposed by the Presidency on the labelling of organic products. The Presidency suggests establishing three categories of labelling depending on the amount of organic ingredients in the final product: - a “golden standard” labelling for products containing at least 95% organic ingredients (with mention of the sales denomination, the EU logo and the ingredients); - “emphasised labelling” for foodstuffs containing at least 70% organic ingredients (percentage of organic foodstuff, sales denomination and list of ingredients); - and “ingredients labelling” for products containing less than 70% organic ingredients (giving the ingredients used). The Presidency also suggests that the indication of origin for farm produce should appear on the labels if the EU logo is used (for first category products) except in the case of processed products. For imports from third countries, it would not be compulsory to put the logo or the origin on the label. But the indication of origin would be compulsory if the operator uses the EU logo.
The European Commission was willing to accept this solution with a view to facilitating a final Council compromise on the dossier. It recalled that there are currently two categories of organic products (over 95% and over 70%) and that it had suggested keeping just one (over 95%). Also, in its proposal, the Commission did not refer to the obligation of mentioning the origin of products. The addition of a third category (less than 70%) meets the concerns of some Member States who find it difficult to keep to the 70% minimum. (lc)