Brussels, 15 january 2008

EURO COOP is the European Community of Consumer Cooperatives, whose members are the national organisations of consumer cooperatives in 17 European countries. Created in 1957, EURO COOP today represents over 3,200 local and regional cooperatives, the members of which amount to more than 23 million consumers across Europe.

The Commission presented the New Organic Logo at the end of November. In this respect, Euro Coop would like to submit three crucial comments regarding its future implementation.

1. The New Organic Logo should not include words

European consumer co-operatives have a long-standing commitment in developing Organic Products as they firmly believe that Organic Farming has a key role to play in fostering sustainable development. Their experience leads them to believe that it would not be optimal to use words in the logo as the wording chosen might not be appropriate in all EU languages. In some Member States (MS), using words is likely to cause confusion among consumers and would not provide the wished incentives to develop Organic Products. For example, in some EU languages the word "Bio" does not refer to organic production.

2. No need to implement the New Organic Logo by the end of February 2008

Euro Coop strongly opposes the implementation of the New Organic Logo by the end of February 2008. It believes that its implementation should be dealt with in the same breath as the enforcement of the New Regulation, which will become effective as of 1st January 2009. This would lead to the clear advantage that there would be no need for a transition period and all products produced under the current regulation would bear the current logo.

The latter could be sold during the whole 2009 and until the producers run out of remaining packaging material. This would also facilitate inspections in warehouses, storages and outlets. Products bearing the New Organic Logo would be produced under the New Regulation and there would be no confusion about whether there is a compulsory use of the New Organic Logo or not. This would mean that the first products to be labelled with the New Organic Logo will be those produced during the vegetation season 2009.

3. No marketing of the New Organic Logo before products actually bear it

Euro Coop also strongly opposes the marketing of the New Organic Logo before products on shelves actually bear it. Consistency is needed, i.e. consumers should find in stores the products they see advertised in the media. A promotional campaign without any products to purchase would therefore be a wasted campaign. At present, a promotional campaign to strengthen consumers' knowledge of Organic products is surely needed but this could be carried out without necessarily focusing on the current or the New Organic Logo.

For more information please contact:
Rosita Zilli, Policy Officer, Euro Coop
Tel: +32 (0)2 285 00 72
E-mail: rzilliateurocoop.coop