EU Organic Regulation Guide Online Now – Cheaper for members
After a 10-year long process, the new EU Organic Regulation took effect on 1 January 2022. The basic Regulation (EU) 2018/848 was published in June 2018, while the secondary legislation was developed in the following 2.5 years, with the last secondary regulation published on the EU Official Journal on 29 December 2021.
For more information on the main changes the EU Organic Regulation brings (including changes on international trade and imports) , please refer to IFOAM Organics Europe’s website.
The new EU Organic Regulation: Much more difficult to read
To date, the following secondary legislation has been adopted and published:
- 15 delegated regulations, and
- 7 implementing regulations.
In addition, 7 regulations and 6 corrigenda have been published to correct mistakes of the secondary legislation. This means that a total of 35 different documents need to be opened and consulted to have a full picture of the new EU Organic Regulation and other legal acts will follow in the coming months.
The new EU Organic Regulation also contains many references to other EU horizontal legislations (on food, official controls, fertilisers, flavourings, etc.).
Reading the new EU Organic regulation is far from easy! Even more so for organic farmers, producers, associations and control bodies outside the EU who may be less familiar with how the EU legislation!
To help understand the regulations better, IFOAM Organics Europe developed guidelines to help you navigate this legal labyrinth which are available on regulation.organicseurope.bio.
- The new EU Organic Regulation and its secondary legislation are consolidated by grouping areas. For example, organic food processors find all the requirements relevant to their activities presented in a logical order and without having to open and consult many different legal acts;
- Definitions and recitals are available with a single click;
- Articles of other EU legislations mentioned in the new EU Organic Regulation are also available with a single click;
- We highlighted main changes compared to previous EU Organic Regulations;
- We also provided comments and explanations of unclear points or points where there is room for interpretation.
As of now, 9 chapters have been developed and ready to be consulted and 4 chapters are being finalized:
- Scope
- Organic plant production
- Organic poultry
- Organic herbivores
- Organic pigs
- Organic aquaculture (available soon)
- Organic beekeeping (available soon)
- Organic food processing
- Organic wine
- Labelling (available soon)
- Control and certification
- International trade and imports
- Group certification (available soon)
IFOAM Organics Europe’s team encourages you to provide them with feedback while you are using the guide, please contact them at organicregulation@organicseurope.bio.
The legal text is put in a logical order, including basic regulation and relevant secondary regulations.
On the left side, you find the line number. When this number is underlined, you can hover over that number with the mouse and an annotation will pop up showing the legal reference of that text. It will tell you from which regulation and article that text comes from.
In the text, you will find many links (they will be underlined). Those links will open other pop-up windows with:
- Articles of other EU legislations (e.g., wine, fertilisers, etc.), so that you will not need to look for and consult this other EU legislation. Sometimes it happens that such article in the pop up makes references to even other legislations. You will also find the articles of this third legislation in a second pop up;
- Comments explaining the legal text;
- The explanation of what changes compared to the previous EU Organic Regulation or whether that text is brand new;
- If you see a (R), by clicking on it, the recital relevant to that article will pop up as well.
The annexes of the regulation are reported as PDF-document. You can find the simple versions as well as the versions with the Track Changes compared to the previous organic regulation.
Every IFOAM Organics Europe member will have one access for free! Please coordinate internally and email organicregulation@organicseurope.bio the contact details (email, first name & last name) of the person in your organisation will benefit from this free access. If you are an IFOAM Organics Europe member and you would like more accesses or accesses for your members, a (reduced) contribution will be asked.
Members of IFOAM regional bodies and IFOAM – Organics International will also benefit from a reduced contribution. The secretariat of each regional body will also get one free access. Please email the contact details of this person to organic organicregulation@organicseurope.bio.
For non-members, the full price will apply (see below).
Are you interested in getting more accesses for your organisation? Consider becoming a sponsor and get free access! Reach out to organicregulation@organicseurope.bio.
For access:
- Go to regulation.organicseurope.bio;
- More than 1 access in your organisation? You can streamline this process and register and pay for all users at once when you login for the first time – select ‘add another account’ in the registration window;
- Register your professional email address and information onto the website and choose the category that applies to you (see below table, we will verify this information);
- Follow the payment instructions that will appear. Payment can be made with PayPal (also has options for Visa and Mastercard);
- After successful payment, you can login with your professional email address and the password you selected;
- Bookmark regulation.organicseurope.bio for easy access later.
If you want to receive more information, please reach out to organicregulation@organicseurope.bio.
These sponsors made setting up this guide possible. Without them, it would not be here. If you also want to become a sponsor (and get free access to the guide), please email organicregulation@organicseurope.bio.
