PURPOSE: to postpone the compulsory use of the EU logo on labelling of organic products for the time needed to create the new Community logo.

LEGISLATIVE ACT: Council Regulation (EC) No 967/2008 amending Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products.

CONTENT: Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 has introduced rules for compulsory indications to be used on organic products, which, from 1 January 2009, includes the use of the Community logo on pre-packaged food.

It is important for the perception of consumers to ensure an informative labelling with a distinctive and appealing Community logo, which symbolises organic production and clearly identifies the products. The design of such a Community logo requires a certain time period to be developed and to be made known to the public.

Therefore, the purpose of the Regulation is to postpone until 1 July 2010 the compulsory use of the EU logo provided for in the Regulation. However, operators may use, on a voluntary basis, the current logo defined in Annex V to Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91, until the creation of the new EU logo.

ENTRY INTO FORCE: 10/10/2008.

Regulation 2008/967
OJ L 264 03.10.2008, p. 0001

Results of vote in Parliament

The European Parliament adopted, by 667 votes to 12 with 7 abstentions under the consultation procedure, a legislative resolution approving the proposal for a Council regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products. The report had been tabled for consideration in plenary by Neil PARISH (EPP-ED, UK) on behalf of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.

T6-0377/2008

A6-0311/2008

A6-0311/2008

The Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development adopted a report drafted by Neil PARISH (EPP-ED, UK) and, in the framework of the consultation procedure, approved the proposal for a Council regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products.

PE409.423

PURPOSE: to postpone until 1 July 2010 the compulsory use of the EU logo in Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products.

PROPOSED ACT: Council Regulation.

CONTENT: Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products will apply as of 1 January 2009. Under Article 24(1)(b) of the Regulation, it will be compulsory to use an EU logo on pre-packaged organic products from that date. Before that date, the use of a Community logo is optional.

The purpose of this proposal is to postpone the compulsory use of the EU logo pending the design of a new logo.

This delay shall help to avoid:

- the confusion of consumers by changing EU logos within a short time period and

- the creation of additional financial burden for operators, who would have to change their packaging and print-outs within a very short time frame.

The design of a new EU logo is necessary since it turned out that the current EU logo for organic products according to Annex V of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91 is easily confusable with other logos, like the EU logos for quality production (PDIs, PGOs and TSGs) pursuant to Commission Regulations (EC) No 1898/2006 and (EC) No 1216/2007.

It is important for the perception of consumers to ensure an informative labelling with a distinctive and appealing EU logo, which represents the organic production and clearly identifies the products.

To gain a broad acceptance of the new EU logo, it should be drawn up by including the public in the design procedure. This will be carried out by a public contest during the promotion campaign for the organic farming which will be launched in July 2008.

This campaign is scheduled for a period of three years and this timeframe can be used for the organisation of the public web-contest at European level and subsequent decision making process. This implies postponing the compulsory use of the EU logo until mid-2010.

Accordingly, an additional paragraph is added in Article 42 of Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 stipulating that Article 24(1)(b) and (c) of the Regulation will apply as of 1 July 2010.

COM(2008)0314
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