New regulation for organic farming

On 28 June the European Parliament and member states reached a preliminary agreement on new regulations for labelling of organic farming that will apply from 1 July 2020. This marked the end of three years of elaborate negotiations. One of the results was harmonised rules for imports from outside the EU, levelling the playing field for producers within the EU.

The compromise was made possible after scrapping a threshold for pesticide residues in crops. Several member states have been worried that producers would not dare convert to organic, because of fear of contamination from conventional neighbouring farms.

At the time, there were still several details to solve. A final approval in the Council and the Parliament is expected later this autumn.

ENDS Europe Daily, 29 June 2017