Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2005:186
Date: 2005-03-17
Language of the case: Spanish
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Consumer protection
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Spain

Summary of the Judgment Agriculture — Common agricultural policy — Method of organic production of agricultural products and indications referring thereto on agricultural products and foodstuffs — Regulation No 2092/91 — Indications referring to that method of production — Use of such indications and their derivatives for products not produced by such a method of production — Use of the terms ‘biológico’ and ‘bio’ in Spain — Whether permissible in the version amended by Regulation No 1804/1999 — Not permissible in the version amended by Regulation No 392/2004 (Council Regulation No 2092/91, Art. 2, as amended by Council Regulations Nos 1804/1999 and 392/2004, Art. 2) Article 2 of Regulation No 2092/91 on organic production of agricultural products and indications referring thereto on agricultural products and foodstuffs, as amended to include livestock production by Regulation No 1804/1999, is to be interpreted as not precluding products which were not organically produced from bearing, in Spain, the indication ‘biológico’ or its prefix ‘bio’ in the labelling, advertising material and commercial documents. That same Article 2, as amended by Regulation No 392/2004, must be interpreted as precluding from now on such products from bearing, in Spain, the indication ‘biológico’ or its prefix ‘bio’ in the labelling, advertising material and commercial documents. That article states that the terms set out in it in the various language versions are not exclusive for the Member States but have indicative status which also covers translations in other official languages of the Community. (see paras 19, 22, operative part 1-2)