The Council discussed the proposal for a regulation on organic farming with a view to reaching a general approach. It made significant progress on a number of articles but some Member States requested more time to reflect further on some sensitive issues such as controls and the presence of non-authorised products or substances in organic products.
- Non-authorised products or substances in organic agricultural products: delegations expressed diverging views on how to achieve a harmonised EU approach. Some countries would support imposing legally binding threshold limits as initially proposed by the Commission, while others would prefer to rely instead on the existing system of control in the production process.
- Control systems: delegations were divided on the mechanism governing the frequency of the controls. Many EU countries would like to keep mandatory annual or regular physical inspections. However, others were in favour of setting a risk-based control system.
The Presidency expects to reach a general approach on this issue at the Council meeting in June before launching negotiations with the European Parliament.