Council Regulation (EC) No 392/2004 of 24 February 2004 amending Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91 on organic production of agricultural products and indications referring thereto in agricultural products and foodstuffs
Date: 2004-02-24
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: agricultural product, foodstuff, labelling, organic farming

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(Acts whose publication is obligatory)

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 392/2004

of 24 February 2004

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

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Com-
munity, and in particular Article 37 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament (1),

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91 (2) provides for a harmo-
nised framework for
the labelling, production and
inspection of agricultural products, which bear or are
intended to bear indications referring to the organic
production method.

Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91 also provides for Com-
munity-wide protection of certain terms used to indicate
to consumers that a food or feed product, or its ingredi-
ents, are 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 misinterpreta-
tion as regards the scope of the protection it is appro-
priate to amend that Regulation correspondingly.

Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91 also provides that opera-
tors producing, preparing or importing products from
third countries, which fall within the scope of that Regu-
In recent
lation are subject to an inspection system.
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.

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

In conformity with the principle of a risk-based
it might appear in some cases dispropor-
approach,
tionate to apply notification and inspection requirements
to certain types of retail operators. It is therefore appro-
priate to provide for the possibility for Member States to
exempt such operators from those requirements.

For the purpose of respecting the obligation of profes-
sional secrecy, the inspection authorities and bodies are
to disclose information and data they
required not
obtain in their
the
inspection activity. However,
exchange of
information should be possible between
inspection authorities and bodies in order to improve
traceability and to guarantee compliance with 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 appro-
priate to provide, for reasons of clarity, that equivalent
inspection requirements are to be applied to those
products.

It is appropriate to provide for a deferred date of appli-
cation of the new notification and inspection require-
ments in order to allow for the necessary adjustments, in
particular in the Member States where no such require-
ments currently exist. This should be without prejudice
to such inspection requirements which already exist at
national level.

(1) Opinion delivered on 4 December 2003 (not yet published in the

Official Journal).

(2) OJ L 198, 22.7.1991, p. 1. Regulation last amended by Commission
Regulation (EC) No 2277/2003 (OJ L 336, 23.12.2003, p. 68).

(8)

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

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HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

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

1. Article 2 shall be 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 mate-
rial or commercial documents, such a product, its ingredi-
ents or feed materials are described in terms suggesting to
the purchaser that the product, its ingredients or feed mate-
rials have been obtained in accordance with the rules of
the
production laid down in Article 6.
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
they are not applied to agricultural
language, unless
products in foodstuffs or feedingstuffs or clearly have no
connection with this method of production:

In particular,

— in Spanish: ecológico,

— in Danish: økologisk,

— in German: ökologisch, biologisch,

— in Greek: βιολογικό,

— in English: organic,

— in French: biologique,

— in Italian: biologico,

— in Dutch: biologisch,

— in Portuguese: biológico,

— in Finnish: luonnonmukainen,

— in Swedish: ekologisk.’;

2.

in Article 8, paragraph 1 shall be replaced by the following:

Any operator who produces, prepares,

‘1.
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.

Member States may exempt from the application of this
paragraph operators who sell such products directly to the
final consumer or user provided they do not produce,
prepare, store other than in connection with the point of
sale, or import such products from a third country.

the activities
Where an operator contracts out any of
referred to in the first subparagraph to a third party, that
operator shall nonetheless be subject to the requirements
referred to in points (a) and (b), and the subcontracted activ-
ities shall be subject to the inspection system referred to in
Article 9.’;

3. Article 9 shall be amended as follows:

(a) paragraph 1 shall be replaced by the following:

‘1. Member States shall set up an inspection system
operated by one or more designated inspection authori-
ties and/or by approved private bodies to which the
operators referred to in Article 8(1) shall be subject.’;

(b) in paragraph 7, point (b), the following sentence shall

be added:

‘However, upon request duly justified by the necessity to
the products have been produced in
guarantee that
accordance with this Regulation, they shall exchange
with other inspection authorities or approved inspection
bodies relevant
their
inspection. They may also exchange the abovemen-
tioned information on their own initiative.’;

information on the results of

(c) in paragraph 9, point

(a) shall be replaced by the

following:

‘(a) ensure that, where an irregularity is found regarding
the implementation of Articles 5 and 6 or of the
provisions
referred to in Articles 3 and 4 of
Commission Regulation (EC) No 223/2003 of 5
February 2003 on labelling requirements related to
the organic production method for feedingstuffs,
compound feedingstuffs and feed materials (*), or of
the measures referred to in Annex III, the indica-
tions provided for in Article 2 referring to the
organic production method are removed from the
entire lot or production run affected by the irregu-
larity concerned;

(*) OJ L 31, 6.2.2003, p. 3.’;

4.

in Article 10(1), point (b) shall be replaced by the following:

‘(b) have been subject to the inspection system referred to
in Article 9 throughout the production and preparation
process or, in the case of imported products to equiva-
lent measures;
imported
according to Article 11 (6), the implementation of the
inspection system shall comply with requirements
equivalent to those provided for in Article 9, and in
particular paragraph 4 thereof;’.

in the case of products

Article 2

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

Article 1(2) shall apply from 1 July 2005.

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

Done at Brussels, 24 February 2004.

For the Council

The President

J. WALSH