Stakeholder participation and stakeholder protest: On the planned revision of the EU Organic regulation

1
Stakeholder participation and stakeholder
protest On the planned revision of the EU
Organic regulation
Alexander Zorn, Christian Eichert, Stephan
Dabbert
Background and Objective

on the evaluation of the European Action Plan for
Organic Food and Farming. The concerns voiced by
stakeholders on the revision of the regulation
were so strong that we consider it appropriate to
i) report them and ii) to put them into
perspective as a contribution to further
discussion. This is the objective of this poster.
In Germany organic stakeholders largely reject
the draft of the revised EU Organic regulation.
This was evident at a workshop held within the
framework of the ORGAP project, which brought
together leading representatives of the organic
sector in March 2006. The objective of the
workshop was to develop indicators
Stakeholders Views and Statements

• One key concern of the stakeholders is that the
  perceived balance between private sector and
  government within organic food regulation is
  changed and power is being shifted towards
  government. Indications for that according to the
  stakeholders are
• the change in decision procedure,
• the Annexes become Implementation Procedures
  with details not yet known,
• - issues surrounding labeling (compulsory use of
  EU-ORGANIC or the EU organic logo, easier access
  to private logos, difficulties to distinguish
  premium organic products in the market).
• Another key concern is the fact, that the draft
  regulation was largely developed without
  consultation of stakeholders. This poster
  concentrates on the last point. The accompanying
  paper addresses all issues.

In order to illustrate the concerns of
stakeholders some of their typical statements and
arguments are presented. Some actors in the
sector have commented on the new draft regulation
in drastic terms, feeling that the sector is
being disenfranchised, having its child taken
away. Other critical statements were A sandbox
is set up for the sector where it can engage with
itself in the background, the EU or the
Commission, is pursuing different objectives.
Complete rejection of the idea to revise the
regulation.
Good Governance
The involvement of all actors and stakeholders in
the policy-making process (participation) is an
important principle. As a matter of principle,
before the EU takes action, it should always
clarify the issue of subsidiarity, i.e. whether
any action is necessary at all and, if so,
whether it should be taken at EU level.
The concept of good governance can be helpful to
judge the revision process from a broader
perspective. In 2001 the EU Commission introduced
a set of governance principles in a white paper
on European Governance. The objective of the
governance reform is to open up policy-making to
make it more inclusive and accountable.
Stakeholder Integration
The balance between private sector and government
with respect to the regulation of the organic
sector has changed over time. Also stake-holder
integration was different during different
stages. The first version of the revision of EU
Organic regulation was largely developed without
direct consultations with organic sector
associations. This is certainly one of the
reasons for the vehement criticism confronting
the EU Commission in spring 2006. Furthermore,
the provisions of the new draft give the
Commission additional sway in future concerning
the implementation of the regulation.
In the light of good gover-nance, the principles
of sub-sidiarity and stakeholder in-volvement in
the revision of the regulation have not yet been
adequately considered. The international trend
con-cerning organic sector regulation is moving
towards increasing subsidiarity and stakeholder
integration (Aus-tralia and Canada are
inter-esting examples). Europe should not shut
its eyes to this trend further development of
its regulatory model for the organic sector
should be in keeping with the above mentioned
principles.
OF Organic Farming
Here the sectors complaint is that opportunities
for participation in future will continue to be
inadequate, even though the development of
implementation provisions is of crucial
importance to everyday practice.
Conclusions
The draft of the new regulation is a consequence
of the European Action Plan for Organic Food and
Farming. Thus the very fact that a revision is
planned should not come as a surprise.
Stakeholder involvement during a crucial phase of
the development of the draft regulation was not
adequate.
There are indications that this is changing. The
private sector should use the chance to suggest
changes to the regulation. From the authors point
of view the principles of subsidiarity and
balanced private-public partnership should be key
principles in the further revisions.
Contact Sources
Institute for Farm Management (410a), University
of Hohenheim, D-70593 Stuttgart, Germany
Contact www.uni-hohenheim.de/i410a
Detailed information on sources and the full text
of our manuscript are available on the Conference
homepage http//www.orgprints.org/joc2006.php?idi
nt_conf_joint2006_3
Our thanks go to the participants of the
workshop as authors of this poster, however, we
alone and not they are responsible for its
contents.