Proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91 on organic production of agricultural products and indications referring thereto in agricultural products and foodstuffs
Date: 2003-01-16
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: agricultural product, foodstuff, labelling, organic farming, organic product, quality control of agricultural products, supervisory power

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES

Brussels, 16.01.2003
COM(2003) 14 final

2003/0002 (CNS)

Proposal for a

COUNCIL REGULATION

amending Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91 on organic production of agricultural products
and indications referring thereto in agricultural products and foodstuffs

(presented by the Commission)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

Council  Regulation  (EEC)  No  2092/91  of  24  June  1991  on  organic  production  of
agricultural  products  and  indications  referring  thereto  on  agricultural  products  and
foodstuffs  provides  for  a  harmonised  framework  for  the  labelling,  production  and
inspection  of  agricultural  products,  which  bear  or  are  intended  to  bear  indications
referring to the organic production method.

Article  2  of  Regulation  (EEC)  No  2092/91  provides  for  a  Community  wide
protection  of  certain  terms  used  to  indicate  to  the  consumers  that  a  food  or  a  feed
product,  or  its  ingredients,  have  been  obtained  in  accordance  with  the  organic
production method laid down  in that Regulation. The protection also  applies  to  the
usual  derivatives  or  diminutives  of  these  terms,  whether  they  are  used  alone  or
combined  and  independently  of  which  language  is  used.  In  order  to  remove  any
possibility of misinterpretation as regards the scope of the protection it is appropriate
to amend that Article.

According  to  Article  8  of  Regulation  (EEC)  No  2092/91,  operators  producing,
preparing or importing from third countries products falling within the scope of that
Regulation shall be subject to the inspection system set up under its Article 9. In the
recent  years,  there  have  been  cases  where  products  bearing  indications  referring  to
the  organic  production  method  have  been  placed  on  the  market  without  being  in
that  Regulation.  Moreover,
laid  down 
compliance  with 
contamination  with  herbicides  has  occurred  recently  during  the  storage  of  products
from organic farming. It is therefore necessary to reinforce the inspection system and
to  submit  to  the  inspection  system  all  operators  throughout  the  production  and  the
preparation  process.  Nevertheless,  retailers  not  carrying  out  any  operation  on  the
product and selling it directly to the final consumer in sealed packaging shall not be
subject to the inspection system.

the  provisions 

in 

The  inspection  bodies  and  authorities  operating  under  the  inspection  system  shall
respect the obligation of professional secrecy. Nevertheless, considering the need of
ensuring traceability of the product and to guarantee that the rules of organic farming
are complied with all along the production and preparation chain, it  is necessary to
facilitate  the  exchange  of  information  between  inspection  bodies  or  authorities  and
between inspection bodies or authorities and public competent authorities.

The  Community  logo  indicates  that  the  products  are  covered  by  the  specific
inspection  scheme.  The  logo  may  be  used  also  for  products  imported  from  third
countries  where  an  equivalent  system  of  production  and  an  inspection  system  of
equivalent effectiveness have been assessed. In this regard, the inspection measures
shall be deemed to be of equivalent effectiveness only if they are  carried out by an
inspection body supervised by public authorities. For the sake of clarity, Regulation
(EEC) No 2092/91 should be amended accordingly.

6.

This proposal has no impact on the Community budget.

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2003/0002 (CNS)

Proposal for a

COUNCIL REGULATION

amending Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91 on organic production of agricultural products
and indications referring thereto in agricultural products and foodstuffs

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having  regard  to  the  Treaty  establishing  the  European  Community,  and  in  particular
Article 37 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission1,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament2,

Whereas:

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

Council Regulation (EEC) No 2092/913 provides for a harmonised framework for the
labelling,  production  and  inspection  of  agricultural  products,  which  bear  or  are
intended to bear indications referring to the organic production method.

Article  2 of Regulation  (EEC)  No  2092/91  provides  for  Community-wide  protection
of  certain  terms  used  to  indicate  to  consumers  that  a  food  or  feed  product,  or  its
ingredients, have been obtained in accordance with the organic production method laid
down  in  that  Regulation.  That  protection  also  applies  to  the  usual  derivatives  or
diminutives  of  those  terms,  whether  they  are  used  alone  or  combined,  and
independently  of  which  language  is  used.  In  order  to  remove  any  possibility  of
misinterpretation as regards the scope of the protection it is appropriate to amend that
article.

Regulation  (EEC)  No  2092/91  provides  that  operators  producing,  preparing  or
importing products from third countries, which fall within the scope of that Regulation
are subject to an inspection system. In recent years, some products bearing indications
referring  to  the  organic  production  method  have  been  placed  on  the  market  without
complying  with  Regulation  (EEC)  No  2092/91.  Moreover,  contamination  with
herbicides has occurred recently during the storage of products from organic farming.
It  is  therefore  necessary  to  reinforce  the  inspection  system  and  to  submit  to  the
inspection system all operators throughout the production and the preparation process.
However, retailers not carrying out any operation on the product and selling it directly
to  the  final  consumer  in  sealed  packaging  should  not  be  subject  to  the  inspection
system.

1

2

3

OJ C …, …, p. …
OJ C …, …, p. …
OJ  L  198,  22.7.1991,  p.  1.  Regulation  last  amended  by  Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  473/2002
(OJ L 75, 16.3.2002, p. 21).

3

                                                
(4) 

(5) 

For  the  purpose  of  respecting  the  obligation  of  professional  secrecy,  the  inspection
authorities and bodies are required not to disclose information and data they obtain in
their  inspection  activity.  However,  the  exchange  of  information  should  be  possible
between  inspection  authorities  and  bodies  in  order  to  improve  traceability  and  to
guarantee compliance with the provisions of Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91 throughout
the production and preparation process.

Since  the  Community  logo  indicating  that  products  are  covered  by  the  specific
inspection  scheme  may  be  used  for  products  imported  from  third  countries,  it  is
appropriate to provide, for  reasons of clarity, that equivalent inspection requirements
are to be applied to those products.

(6) 

Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91 should therefore be amended accordingly,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91 is amended as follows:

1)

Article 2 is replaced by the following:

“Article 2

For the purposes of this Regulation a product shall be regarded as bearing indications
referring  to  the  organic  production  method  where,  in  the  labelling,  advertising
material or commercial documents, such a product, its ingredients or feed materials
are described in terms suggesting to the purchaser that the product, its ingredients or
feed  materials  have  been  obtained  in  accordance  with  the  rules  of  production  laid
down  in Article  6.  The following  terms  or  their  usual  derivatives  (such  as  bio,  eco
etc.) or diminutives, alone or combined, shall be regarded as indications referring to
the  organic  production  method  throughout  the  Community  and  in  any  Community
language,  unless  they  are  not  applied  to  agricultural  products  in  foodstuffs  or
feedingstuffs or clearly have no connection with the method of production:

– 
– 
– 
– 
– 
– 
– 
– 
– 
– 
– 

in Spanish: ecológico,
in Danish: økologisk,
in German: ökologisch,
in Greek: βιολογικό,
in English: organic,
in French: biologique,
in Italian: biologico,
in Dutch: biologisch,
in Portuguese: biológico,
in Finnish: luonnonmukainen,
in Swedish: ekologisk.”

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2)

“1.

In Article 8, paragraph 1 is replaced by the following:

Any  operator  who  produces,  prepares,  stores  or  imports  from  a  third  country
products as specified in Article 1 with a view to the subsequent marketing thereof, or
who markets such products, shall:

(a)

notify this activity to the competent  authority  of  the Member  State where the
activity is carried out;  such notification  shall  include  the  information  referred
to in Annex IV;

(b)

submit his undertaking to the inspection system referred to in Article 9.

However, retailers not carrying out any preparation and selling such products directly
to  the  final  consumer  in  sealed  packaging  are  not  subject  to  the  inspection  system
referred to in Article 9.”

3)

In Article 9(7)(b), the following sentence is added:

“However, upon request and only in order to guarantee that the products have been
produced  in  accordance  with  this  Regulation,  they  shall  exchange  with  other
inspection  authorities  or  approved  inspection  bodies  relevant  information  on  the
results of their inspection.”

4)

In Article 10(1), point (b) is replaced by the following:

“(b) have been subject to the inspection system referred to in Article 9 throughout
the production and preparation process or to equivalent measures; in the case of
products  imported  according  to  Article  11(6),  the  implementation  of  the
inspection system shall comply with requirements equivalent to those provided
for in Article 9(4);”

Article 2

This Regulation shall enter into force on the seventh day following that of its publication in
the Official Journal of the European Communities.

Article 1(2) shall apply from [date].

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels,

For the Council
The President

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