The European Council of Agriculture has reached agreement on a general approach for a regulation on organic farming.
The agreement follows months of extensive debate over the future direction of organic production.
The agreed proposal is aimed at revising the existing legislation on organic production and labelling of
organic products so as to remove obstacles to the development of organic production in the EU,
guarantee fair competition for farmers and operators and improve consumer confidence in organic
products.
A general approach is a political agreement on the position of the Council on a proposal for a
regulation.
The agreement on organic production and labelling of organic products will make it possible to launch negotiations between the Parliament and the Council with a view to reaching a political agreement between the EU institutions.
In the Parliament, the vote on the report presented by the rapporteur is expected to take place in mid-July or mid-September 2015 in the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.
During the last 10 years until 2012, the amount of land being used for organic farming in the EU has doubled with an increase by about 500,000 hectares per year.
Over the period 2000-2012, the overall organically farmed area increased by approximately 6.7% annually, reaching 10.1m hectares that is 5.7% of all agricultural area land in the EU.
