WRITTEN QUESTION E-3663/03 by Paulo Casaca (PSE) to the Commission. Undisclosed research on organic farming.
Date: 2003-12-09
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European Commission, administration of the Institutions, dissemination of EU information, economic survey, organic farming, redirection of production, research report

27.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 78 E/847

However, existing european legislation already requires that certain steps must take place before any
development approval is given.

Council Directive 2001/42/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 27 June 2001 on the assessment of
the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment (1) requires an assessment of, ‘inter alia’,
any government plan or programme to dispose of radioactive waste. However, Member States have until
21 July 2004 to transpose this Directive into national legislation.

Council Directive 85/337/EEC of 27 June 1985 on the effects of certain public and private projects on the
environment, as amended by Council Directive 97/11/EC of 3 March 1997 (2), requires an assessment to be
carried out of, ‘inter alia’, of the environmental impact of any facilities designed for the final disposal or
long-term storage of radioactive waste or irradiated nuclear fuel. Radiological effects will form part of the
impacts to be assessed.

If development consent is granted, specific measures under the Euratom Treaty and secondary legislation
will be applicable. All practices involving radioactive materials are subject to Council Directive 96/29/
Euratom of 13 May 1996 laying down basic safety standards for the health protection of the general
there are notification
public and workers against
requirements under Article 37 of the Euratom Treaty in the case of disposal of radioactive waste.

ionizing radiation (3).

the dangers of

In addition,

The Commission would also like to refer the Honourable Member to the reply P-3519/03 by Mr Turco (4).

(1) OJ L 197, 21.7.2001.
(2) OJ L 73, 14.3.1997.
(3) OJ L 159, 29.6.1996.
(4) See page 570.

(2004/C 78 E/0901)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3663/03

by Paulo Casaca (PSE) to the Commission

(9 December 2003)

Subject: Undisclosed research on organic farming

Electronic information networks contain details of contracts, bearing the reference ‘QLK-2000-0112’, for
research into current trends in organic farming and food and conversion of production, which were
concluded under the fifth research framework programme and apparently covered all the Member States.

Several of the studies produced under those contracts are obtainable in electronic or other forms and dated
2002 or 2003.

It is also possible, using the Agriculture Directorate-General’s site, to consult recently dated working
documents and reports on exactly the same subject. Strangely, however, their bibliographies do not
mention any of the studies produced under the fifth framework programme, which were presumably
already in preparation in 2000.

Can the Commission say whether it is true that two different Commission departments were engaged in
parallel activities related to the same subject, employing similar techniques (surveys), but did not pool their
efforts and did not even bother to tell each other what they were doing?

Can it say why it has deliberately withheld the ‘QLK-2000-01112’ studies from public consultation?

Does it have any idea of the costs to economic, social, and administrative players entailed in its policy of
non-communication and excessive secrecy, starting with the overlapping within its own departments?

C 78 E/848

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

27.3.2004

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(22 January 2004)

The overall objective of project QLK5-2000-01112 is the assessment of
for
conversion-grade products (produced by farms under conversion from conventional to organic). Its focus is
mainly on conversion products, but it also addresses issues related to certified organic farming products
and looks at solutions for policy makers to help farmers during the conversion period from conventional
to organic farming methods of production.

the market potential

The project gathers and analyses relevant data from six Union countries (it does not cover all the Member
States): Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, United Kingdom, Austria.

The surveys are only one part of the project (78 man-months out of a total of 212 man-months). Most of
the activities of the participants are related to literature and background research, farm case studies and
feasibility studies aimed at the analysis of the data collected and production of national and comparative
reports on the state of conversion and organic farming markets.

The final aim of the project is to produce recommendations to policy makers and to disseminate the
results of the projects to all the stakeholders through a series of open workshops to be held in the
participating countries. A final workshop will be held in Brussels in March 2004.

The main dissemination activity foreseen by the project is the organisation of the national workshops,
planned for November/December 2003 and currently ongoing, and the final workshop in Brussels,
originally planned for December 2003 but postponed to March 2004.

There was no secret at all about this project, in fact a web page was opened at the beginning of the
project (1) and all the information about the project activities are available there, as well as contact details
of the participants. The website has not been updated with interim reports (despite the contractors having
being asked to do so) but this lack of information is not due to a Commission decision or fault. However,
the final reports will be made available on the web page after the final workshop and after their approval
by the Commission (Spring 2004).

Concerning the ‘Organic farming’ heading on the Directorate General (DG) Agriculture website, no studies
or research reports appear here, only reports and documents written by the Commission services.
However, on the DG Agriculture website there is another heading, ‘Research’, which provides a gateway to
the Cordis database, where it is possible to search for information on all the research projects completed
or currently underway. The two services, DG Agriculture and DG Research, are in constant consultation
with each other. A joint workshop between DG Research, DG Agriculture and the Joint Research Centre
was organised in February 2002 in order to assess the situation concerning available studies and projects
on organic farming, and to establish what further projects were needed. Additionally, in September 2002,
DG Research organised a seminar on organic farming research in Brussels, with presentations of research
projects that have been carried out on this subject. Documents and conclusions from this seminar are
available on the EU-AgriNet website (2).

Currently, contracts for a number of research projects addressing issues relevant to agriculture and food
production are about to be signed, after a successful evaluation of the first call for proposals of the
Research and Technological Development (RTD)’s 6th Framework Programme. Several of these projects
have been negotiated in close collaboration between the relevant services of DG Research and DG
Agriculture.

(1) http://www.rdg.ac.uk/AgriStrat/conversion/
(2) http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/agriculture/index_en.html