EU organic rules: EP urges Council to adopt stricter rules for organic farming
The European Parliament today adopted a report, drafted by Greens/EFA vice-president Marie-Hélène Aubert, which seeks to strengthen proposed new regulation on organic production and the labelling of organic products. The Parliament has called for stricter rules for importations and certification bodies, better labelling with the possibility to keep national organic logos, integration of non-food products and extension of the scope of the legislation to catering and restaurants. Following the vote, Marie-Hélène Aubert said:
"The EP has today voted for much stronger rules for organic production and product labelling in the EU. Following the active role of the Parliament on this regulation some of the changes proposed in the EP report have already been accepted by the Council. These include: a better framework for controls, inspections and certification of imports of organic products from third Countries, which did not have similar legislation and controls in place; clearer rules for processing, certifying and labelling of organic products, while preserving the existing specific national and regional labels of the private organic organisations. We also welcome that regular consultation of the stakeholders in organic farming is now agreed.
"The report also urges the Council to revise its 'general agreement', so to exclude the use GMOs and any chemical substances - which is against the very principles of organic production - in order to preserve farmers' and consumers' trust in the high quality of organic food. To this end, we are calling on the Member States to scrap the derogations still present in its 'general agreement'."
On the occasion of the adoption of the report in Parliament, the Green group launched a new campaign issue on organic food as part of its Food Campaign. The group is seeking to highlight the possible risks of the current practice by which low cost retailers use the good reputation of organic food to try and attract customers to their stores, in which they market other lower quality produce
Organic - window dressing for low cost retailers ?
