Council Minutes, 18 June 2012
The following is an extract from the minutes of the Agriculture Council Meeting of 18 June 2012
The Commission briefed the ministers on a report on the application of regulation 834/2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products (10575/12).
The Commission intends to present a more detailed evaluation of the application of this regulation at the end of 2013 on the basis of an impact assessment. Following up on this debate, the Commission may come forward with legal proposals at a later stage.
Regulation 834/2007 and its implementing texts constitute the legal framework on organic food and farming at EU level.
When it was adopted, the Council had pointed to the dynamic evolution of the organic sector and asked for a future review of a number of issues for which it was considered that experience gained from the application of the new rules should be taken into account. These issues were:
This report concludes that it is currently too early to add proposals to change this regulation, especially at a time when the corresponding proposal for its alignment on the Lisbon Treaty is still being discussed in the Parliament and the Council. However, factual elements provided in this report could feed into the debate on organic farming regulation.
The report considers that topics like the simplification of the legislative framework - (while ensuring that the standards are not watered down)-, the coexistence of genetically modified crops in particular with organic farming, and the improvement of the control system and the equivalence regime in the trade in organic products are key issues for future discussions on organic agriculture.
A copy of the report, Commission Document 2012 No 212 is available on this site. See: COM (2012) 0212 - REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products