2.DOCUMENTACIÓN Y FUENTES BIBLIOGRÁFICAS.

K.H. Boesen

European Commission, Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development, Unit F5- Organic Farming.

Introduction

The European Commission has reviewed its regulations regarding organic production of agricultural products and indications referring thereto on agricultural products and foodstuffs (Regulation 2092/91). This review was done by Unit FP5 and presented to the Council in December 2005. This paper summarises the current situation, and the likely changes that will occur in the regulations covering organic livestock production, with a strong reservation for the outcome of the current negotiations in Council.

Unit FP5: what is it and what does it do?

Unit FP5 consists of eight people; five policy officers, one assistant policy officer and two secretaries. It is responsible for the implementation of Council Regulation (EEC) Number 2092/91, which covers the organic production, processing and labelling of agricultural products. It manages questions and notifications that come from the European Parliament, Member States (MS) and the Public. FP5 supports research, and is responsible for CODEX and other international relations on this topic. Currently, it is heavily involved in the further development of the proposal for a new Council Regulation on organic production, and it is also responsible for the implementation of the European Action Plan (EAP) for organic food and farming.

Structure of the new Council Regulation

The new Council Regulation will define the objectives and principles for organic production, and will proscribe basic rules of organic production to ensure the legal basis for the implementing rules. It will state where flexibility in the implementation of these rules may be applied, and will legislate on the labelling of organic products, the controls that need to be applied on the certification of organic products, and what standards need to be applied for imports of organic products.

The primary objective of the Council Regulation with regard to organic livestock production is that high animal welfare standards are respected, which meet the animals’ species-specific behavioural needs.

Principles of the Council Regulation

A key principle related to organic produce is that genetically modified organisms may not be used, with the exception of veterinary medicinal products. With regard to the Council Regulations, a second principle is that the rules of organic production should be adapted to local conditions (recognising the enormous diversity in climate and topography within the

EU), the stages of development of the animals, and the specific husbandry practices in use throughout the community, while maintaining a common concept of organic production. Certain farming principles were borne in mind when constructing the Council Regulation, which are also fundamental to the practice of organic production. First among these are that farming should aim to produce high quality products rather than maximise production. The maintenance of plant and animal health should be based on preventative techniques, and this would include the selection of appropriate breeds and varieties. Livestock feed should come primarily from the unit where the animals are kept, or produced in co-operation with other organic farms in the same region. The highest level of animal welfare should be observed, and products of organic livestock production should come from animals that since birth or hatching, and throughout their lives, have been raised on organic units.

Rules for organic livestock production.

The details of the rules regarding organic livestock production are being debated in Council, but the key criteria for organic livestock production are that the personnel keeping livestock should possess the necessary knowledge and competence regarding the health and welfare needs of the animals. Disease outbreaks must be treated immediately to avoid suffering by the animal, and allopathic products (including antibiotics) may be used where necessary when the use of phytotherapeutic, homeopathic and other products is inappropriate. Milk and milk products from formerly non-organic dairy animals, which are now being managed according to organic principles, may be sold as organic products after a conversion period. Hexane and other organic solvents may not be used in feed processing.

The technical standards in 2092/91 are to be transposed without change, but they will be updated with Community legislation. Allowed substances will be updated with inputs from CODEX and research projects, and the positive lists will be reviewed (but only after advice from the Expert panel, which will be set up in line with the EAP).

Current ‘legislation by derogation’

In the current regulation, there are a number of derogations and exceptions that occur so frequently that they are essentially changes to the common rule. Some of these ‘common derogations’ are authorised by the control bodies, some by member states and some are not authorised. Normally these derogations are set by MS (though the Standing Committee of Organic farming, SCOF), and the control bodies set the enforcement rules.

The new Council Regulation will introduce either a common set of rules or let SCOF set Community guidelines to MS by which they can set the implementing rules.

Amongst these ‘common derogations’ that will be made permanent rules by the new Council Regulation are: the grazing of non-organic animals on organic land, the use of common land, the introduction of non-organic animals for breeding and non-organic queens and swarms in beekeeping, the tethering of individual animals, certain mutilation practices, rules governing the conversion of non-organic land to organic land and the separation in time of feed production lines.

Others will become ‘common but exceptional rules’, derogations for limited periods on individual farms and would include: the tethering and space allowances for livestock in old

stables and on smallholdings, the use of non-organic beeswax, the proportion of fibre in herbivore diets, the use of non-organic feed, the reconversion of animals after treatment, and the restocking of farms and apiaries after catastrophic circumstances.

In such instances, there must be transparency between operators and control bodies. Common but exceptional rules that are currently authorised by MS cover catastrophic circumstances when the use of non-organic feed for livestock, or the use of artificial feeding of bees is allowed, (and judgment is needed on the extent of such a catastrophe). The Community Guidelines should then be used for MS to set local parameters with transparency between the operators and control bodies. This is also going to be the case when MS shall set parameters such as N levels from manure and fallow periods.

These requirements would also include the over-riding of requirements for outdoor access for livestock, and the use of allopathic treatments in the face of necessary statutory disease measures during an epizootic disease outbreak (such as avian influenza).

Simpler, clearer and more transparent Council Regulation

The objective of the new Council Regulation is to simplify, clarify and make more transparent the rules governing organic agriculture in the EU.

It should as a result produce a more unified definition of the standards that have been used in producing organic products, and the marketing of such produce will be facilitated by promoting the use of the common EU logo.

The logo will help to overcome the plethora of logos and labels that currently confuse and make the marketing of organic produce so expensive.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge the contribution that Ms Isabelle Peutz, Ir, DVM and Head of Unit FP5 made to this presentation, particularly with regard to the section on implementation rules. Any mistakes are the author’s responsibility and represent solely the views of the author and cannot in any circumstances be regarded as the official position of the Commission.

Part B: