A European Parliament report has called on the European Commission to demand that organic food products be only imported into the European Union (EU), where the exporting country also allows imports of EU-made ‘organic’ marketed foodstuffs.
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“EU recognition of third countries…must be reciprocal,” said the paper, which has been adopted at a parliamentary plenary session.
MEPs called for tougher laws on organic labelling, saying that “the country of origin [should] be clearly identifiable by consumers”.
Furthermore, the parliament called for the creation by the European Food Safety Authority of a public EU organic food import databank. Also, it wanted exporting countries to certify organic producers under rules defined by the Commission, and that these third country regulators should receive EU accreditation, and be subject to on-the-spot checks by their local national authorities.
