Besides the support under the CAP, EU legislation on organic food and farming has proceeded to develop since EU Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91, which was stated in the early 1990s. The growth process also involved a full checkup of the Regulation, culminating in the acceptance of EU Regulation (EC) No 834/2007. From its reception, rules on the performance have been agreed to detail the organic production, as specification of rules on organic wine, organic yeast and organic aquacultures.
EU organic regulations look for to execute a coherent approach to consumer protection, suspending devious contest and providing common standards for organic production, labelling and marketing in the EU.
Meanwhile, private and other national organic standards, based on the EU claims imaging the specific cultural, structural, geographic and climatic diversity of different Member States and regions, motivate establishment of innovation in organic standards across the sector.
As they form the only EU-wide sustainability label for food, organic standards and certification can facilitate sustainable agriculture, through emphasizing the increase of sustainability across the whole agri-food sector.
The organic farming policy and legislation starting by the European Commission in 2012 culminated in the progress of a new EU Organic Action Plan in 2014, and the substitute of EU Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 in the next EU legislative period 2014-2019. It raises the growth of the EU framework for organic food and farming by achieving a balance between policy bidding and legislative needs.
This could influence the partial and uncertain gathering of data and the anticipating of the production by market quest, to the lack of peculiar organic inputs such as seeds, young animals and protein feed, as well as the administrative load that discourages smaller-scale farmers and operators.
In fact the current Regulation came into force in 2009. Hence, the goals, objectives and principles of the existing Regulation are not still entirely revealed by the evolution of further rules. Also, any complementary improvements to the regulatory and policy framework have to be understood in the sense of existing progress in organic farming. This process is facilitated through tied in and concerted solution between EU organic legislation and the new EU food and farming policy structure till 2020, such as the CAP and Horizon 2020.
The legislative goals and objectives are linked with chance of considerable variations in respect to time and challenges regarding organic food and farming across the EU. It is important to know, that the small improvements to EU legislation or new regulation based on organic principles or market forces, done by EU policymakers can cause significant effect on the organic sector’s future in Europe.
Such evidence is that, a market-driven way could emphasize too much influence on market-orientated outcomes, go after fewer strict legal requirements and spending organic principles. For instance, if any discharge agreed to Member States under the current Regulation, or introduction of option of national ministries allowing imports happens, a serious adverse effect on the realization of sustainable organic agriculture could occur. This will tolerate the risk of contest deformation between Member States. In order to make organic production close to the principles set out in the Regulation, an approach of standards strengthening is keeping. However, it is necessary flexibility or exemption rules available to Member State to be maintained in order to fit the purpose for sustainable development of organic farming. For this reason, sector realities in different Member States and regions must be considered. So long as some delivery is no longer needful, then others will call for changes in line with the evolution of standards that the organic sector has performed since the onset of the Regulation. Anyway, the prompt elimination of all exclusive rules would be unthinkable today, since their amount stays crucial for definite production sectors and in geographical areas where the organic sector is still in its beginning.
Thus, combination of the different ways is necessary to assure a good account within the basic norms of organic farming and the long-term evolution and enlargement of the European organic sector.
Alterations, like input of group certification systems (currently only accepted in non-EU developing countries), or the demand that processors and traders have measured the environmental performance of their activities or present opportunities, are considered.
A set of certification systems in the EU for instance, would allow groups of small-scale farmers to receive certification as single unit, thus reducing the bureaucratic load of certification.
In addition, better environmental output insistence for processors could influence the sustainability standards minding by organic growers and livestock producers in order to move EU organic food to an even wider concept of sustainability.
Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 has been an important driver of the organic sector in Europe.
A new regulation should proceed to favor the growth of the sector by fostering a process-orientated approach that progress standards in the line of the basic organic farming principles.
Consumers and producers should work together to help the progress of the sector with EU and national policy frameworks giving to this dynamic through new EU and national organic action plans.
The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsi-ble for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
