Controversy over the new European organic food logo
As is well known among producers interested in organic products, a number of drawbacks to define the new logo of the European organic food have been happening lately. It is that next January 1st, 2009 is anticipated the arrival of a new regulation in the European Union about organic food, but still has not been mandatory for inclusion in the regulation of a new logo. The issue is that they already had designed and was recently withdrawn by its great similarity with the stamp identifying a private company.
New regulation (No. 834/2007) will enter into force on January 1, 2009 and, in principle, includes the requirement of placing the EU logo on the labels of all containers for organic food. However, during the seminar of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) The Future of Organic Agriculture and food in the context of the European Action Plan on Organic Farming and the CAP health check " held in May in Plovidiv (Bulgaria) has been discussed the need to postpone the introduction of the logo required.
According to Francis Blake, IFOAM EU Group President (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements-EU Regional Group), "This requirement will cause serious problems because it is not possible to postpone only the part of the new Regulation on the logo. There are implications in other parts of it on the label, meaning that many producers will have to change their labels twice. And this is not acceptable to the market. "
So what is proposed is to keep the deadlines for implementing the regulation and bypass the mandatory use of the EU logo, which according to Blake "has always been somewhat controversial."
To avoid further inconveniences and with a view to resolving the conflict over the logo, the European Commission aims to launch a competition open to all European citizens to design a new logo. In order to have sufficient time to select the best, the Commission asked the Council to delay a year, the date on which the logo is quite mandatory. This contest is part of a program funded by the European Union of promotion of organic food that aims to promote and encourage organic food sector. The European Commission will present the first draft of legislation detailing how to improve the existing system in mid-May.