Brussels, 27/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's agriculture committee adopted by 34 votes in favour, 2 against, with one abstention, the report by Marie-Hélène Aubert (Greens/EFA, France), which toughens up provisions in the proposal on organic food labelling and production. Tuesday's vote (27 February) would suggest changes will be made during examination of the dossier in the plenary on 29 March.
According to the initial proposal, foodstuffs cannot be marketed as organic products if they contain GMOs, unless they have been contaminated accidentally and are below the Community's GMO threshold of 0.9% for conventional foods. A parliamentary amendment explains that GMOs, GMO derived products or products developed with the help of GMOs cannot be used in organic production (including veterinary medicines). No amendment mentioning new thresholds was adopted. A series of amendments aims to provide a stricter structure for phytosanitary and veterinary products and national derogations.
Other elements in the report are as follows: use of the European logo (for foodstuffs containing 95% organic ingredients. The mention “EU-ORGANIC” is expected to be obligatory but the addition of other private logos remains possible; the use of the Community logo will be banned for processed products and products from farms that are converting to organic farming; enhanced labelling is necessary for warning about irregularities in sales and imports; national inspection systems are expected to allow for traceability of products at all production stages; operators from third countries will have to provide national authorities with attestations awarded by competent Community control bodies; the regulation is expected to be extended to the whole catering sector (take-aways, canteens, restaurants and other similar services) and products such as wool, food supplements, essential oils; the new regulation is expected to involve wrapping, manufacture and shopping. MEPs consider that adoption of this regulation should follow co-decision procedure between the EP and Council, given that it also covers production and distribution of processed foodstuffs on the internal market governed by this procedure. (lc)