The European Commission has announced the postponement of the entry into force of the new European organic regulation for one year, until January 2022.
It is not a final decision as this proposal must also be approved by the Council and Parliament, although it is expected that this postponement is accepted without submitting further amendments. Furthermore, the Commission has communicated that the next EU Green Action Plan is open for public consultation (open until November 27th ).
This announcement is welcomed by the European organic food and agriculture movement, represented by IFOAM Organics Europe.
The new organic regulation provides for the adoption of numerous delegated acts and implementing measures to specify the technical standards linked, for example, to organic production standards, group certification or the organic control system.
Despite the intense work of the Commission and the Member States, from the European ecological movement they point out that many of these technical requirements still have to be debated and adopted by the Member States, leaving in the best of cases, only a few weeks for for organic operators to adapt to the new standards and for organic certifiers to be accredited according to these new rules.
According to IFOAM Organics Europe, “more time needs to be given to institutions to finalize discussions on this complex set of secondary legislation to ensure the quality and applicability of future rules.
Regarding the Action Plan, Jan Plagge, President of IFOAM Organics Europe, says that “a new EU action plan for organic agriculture is crucial to make Europe more organic.
This action plan should live up to the ambition set out by the “Biodiversity and Farm-to-Table Strategies”: to achieve 25% green land in the EU by 2030, with time-bound targets, an adequate budget and a real influence on the national strategic plans of the CAP”. From IFOAM Organics Europe, its president continues: “We already welcome the Commission’s plans to allocate a budget of 40 million euros to organic farming within the framework of the promotion policy in 2021”.
Jan Plagge president of IFOAM Organics Europe
