Commission Regulation (EC) No 1452/2003 of 14 August 2003 maintaining the derogation provided for in Article 6(3)(a) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91 with regard to certain species of seed and vegetative propagating material and laying down procedural rules and criteria relating to that derogation

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1452/2003
of 14 August 2003
maintaining the derogation provided for in Article 6(3)(a) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91 with regard to certain species of seed and vegetative propagating material and laying down procedural rules and criteria relating to that derogation
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,
Having regard to 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(1), as last amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 599/2003(2), and in particular the second and third indent of point (b) of Article 6(3) thereof,
Whereas:
(1) Article 6(3) of Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91 provides for a derogation by which Member States may authorise, during a transitional period expiring on 31 December 2003, the use in organic production of seed and vegetative propagating material not produced by the organic production method, where the producers are unable to obtain propagating material from the organic production method.
(2) Community legislation of relevance for seed and vegetative propagating material is also applicable according to Article 3 of Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91.
(3) Maintaining biodiversity is an important principle of organic farming and it should therefore be ensured that farmers have a big range of cultivars and varieties to choose among, including local cultivars and varieties.
(4) It is clear that for certain species grown within the Community, there will not be adequate amounts of organically produced seed and vegetative propagating material available after 31 December 2003.
(5) It is therefore necessary to maintain the possibility to use seed and vegetative propagating material not obtained by the organic production method if it is not possible to obtain seed or vegetative propagating material produced by the organic production method.
(6) For the species for which there will be adequate amounts of organically produced seed or vegetative propagating material of a significant number of varieties available it should not be possible to use seed or vegetative propagating material not obtained by the organic production method. Accordingly, a list of the species excluded from the scope of the derogation should be established.
(7) The application of the derogation with regard to vegetative propagating material, other than seed potatoes, should fall under the discretion of the Member States, until appropriate criteria can be adopted at Community level.
(8) It is important to make the supply and demand for seed and vegetative propagating material produced by the organic production method more transparent in order to stimulate increased production and use of seed and vegetative propagating material produced by this method.
(9) Each Member State should therefore ensure that a database, in which seed and seed potatoes produced by the organic production method and respecting the general criteria for production of seed and vegetative propagating material can be registered, is established and is made available to the users. In this context, and in order to facilitate access to information, it is appropriate to develop a harmonised model for the registration form to be used by the supplier of seed for the registration of seed and seed potatoes in the databases.
(10) Each Member State should ensure the publication of a report on their granting of authorisations, for the information of all stakeholders, Member States and the Commission.
(11) The system should be re-examined thoroughly after the first two years of experience in order to assess to what extent organically produced seed and vegetative propagating material have been used by the farmers. In this context the Commission should consider the opportunity of developing a database at Community level.
(12) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee set up in accordance with Article 14 of Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91,