Written answers

Tuesday, 30 May 2006

Department of Agriculture and Food

Organic Farming

8:00 pm

Photo of Pat CareyPat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 467: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food if Ireland is supporting the EU Presidency position in regard to a possible change in EU legislation governing the regulation of organic food and agriculture through a re-drafting of regulation 2092/91 which could have effects as outlined in correspondence (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20577/06]

Photo of Mary CoughlanMary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I support the general thrust of the proposed Regulation on organic production and labelling of organic products and I believe that it is a step in the right direction towards the simplification of controls and procedures. There have been extensive discussions at Council Working Group level during the current Presidency. The proposed Regulation was debated at the Council of Ministers last week and while no decision was sought there was broad general agreement among the Ministers on the approach being adopted by the Commission. A number of areas remain to be clarified.

In relation to the setting of organic standards being controlled by the European Commission, the existing practice is that this work is done by a regulatory committee comprised of experts from the Member States. I am not in favour of the proposal to replace this regulatory committee with a Management Committee. The majority of my fellow Ministers take the same view. On the other hand, I fully support the harmonisation of organic standards throughout the EU. Under the Commission's proposals, claims that a particular set of private or national standards is superior to the rules laid down in the Regulation will not be allowed. That will of course not affect the right of a member State to set additional standards, as Ireland has already done.

The proposed Regulation continues to prohibit the deliberate use of genetically modified organisms (GMO) in organic production and processing, and that products cannot be labelled both organic and GMO. I fully support this position.

While organic farming prohibits the deliberate use of GMOs, there is some risk that they may be introduced unintentionally to organic crops from time to time as a result of events over which producers have no control. The existing horizontal Regulations regarding the labelling of food and feed state that a product with an adventitious presence of GMO of more than 0.9% must be labelled as GM. The draft Regulation on organic production proposes to adopt the same threshold. While a final decision on this issue must involve some degree of pragmatism, the actual threshold for GMO in organic food is a matter that the Council will consider further.

As far as certification controls are concerned, I am happy that the existing system works well in Ireland and I do not support unnecessary changes. Detailed implementing rules will be finalised before the proposed new Regulation comes into effect in January 2009. The issue of a precise list of items will be discussed in that context.

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