Memorandum of understanding

Transcription

1 European Organic Wine Carta (EOWC) Memorandum of understanding 1. Preamble The common European Organic Wine Carta (EOWC) is a private, market-oriented and open initiative to promote and encourage organic quality wine production based on clear and transparent rules elaborated in the common Carta. The objective of the initiative is to promote organic wine of good quality reducing to a minimum the use of external inputs, sulphites included, so fulfilling the lack of a European regulatory frame. Participants to the initiative are standards setting bodies, which are supported by inspection/certification bodies, producer organisations, scientific institutes and market actors and other interested organisations and institutions. Standard setting bodies agreed on a voluntary contractual basis to define their standards on organic wine-making based on the principles for processing in the EU Regulations 834/2007 and EC 889/2009. They are committed to follow and implement the minimum requirements for organic wine-making of the EOWC and to be guided by the recommendations of the ORWINE Code of Good organic viticulture and wine-making produced by the EU funded Research project ORWINE ( 2. Context of the EOWC initiative and its development The initiative started after the European Commission suspended, in June 2010, its proposal for an organic wine regulation as on a political level it was not possible to find a compromise among the different European Member States. The concerned European organic wine sector has therefore decided to take the initiative to promote organic quality wine with minimum use of additives. The initiative wants so send a strong signal to the consumers, to market actors and to the political decision makers that the private sector is willing to cooperate on the basis of an agreed Carta. The content of the Carta, in particular the minimum requirements for organic winemaking, agreed on September 2010, are the result of a long discussion process, which has already started in 2006 during the ORWINE project ( ) and continued during the consultation of the European Commission on their proposal for organic wine rules (from June 2009 until June 2010). The agreed charta text is a compromise, which summarizes the minimum common basis, where many organisations could finally agree. However it is foreseen and necessary that the rules for organic wine-making in the Charta can be further developed in a participatory process. Areas which might be

2 considered are already indicated in the table with the minimum requirements (found in Annex I). The Secretariat of the Carta will collect proposals for change and will put that on a forum of the website for a public dialogue. An annual evaluation meeting among participants will take place. 3. Goals of the of the European Organic Wine Charta The main goal of the initiative is to ensure the production of organic quality wines based on common and transparent European rules. A specific objective is to contribute to minimize the use of any external input, including sulphite use, in wine-making compared with conventional wines whilst maintaining the high quality and good image of organic wine. The initiative should facilitate to introduce common organic wine rules by the European Commission. If such rules will be introduced by the EU-Commission the standards setting bodies decide whether the initiative might have reached the goal or might continue with adapted goals, e.g. in further improving the quality standard of organic wine and foster innovation in the sector while improving communication with consumers through their continuous information. The EOWC is open for voluntary participation, based on a common Code of Conduct, to all stakeholders in the organic wine chain who complies with its principles and the minimal rules laid down in the EOWC. Each supporting stakeholder, at their own level of operations and activities, promotes and supports the production, processing and trading of organic wine based on the EOWC. 4. Functioning of the EOWC Implementing participants (standard setting organizations) adhere to the initiative submitting their private standards to EOWC secretariat that evaluate their fulfilment of the Charta. After EOWC secretariat approval the standard setting organization and its certification system ( its standards, its logo and its recognized certifiers) are published on the web-page. After that the approved certification system starts to operate and certify wine-producers allowing them to mention on the label and promotion materials the indication Respecting the European Organic Wine Carta ( see website). Implementing participants regularly communicate EOWC secretariat the list of certified operators (with full address and contact details) with list of certified wines and some basic statistics (quantity produced, number of bottles etc.). Other participants may simply support the initiative implementing its principles in their work and commit themselves to lobby for common organic wine-making rules. 5. Rules for participation and members The EOWC is open for voluntary participation of different stakeholder groups, having agreed to support the principles and rules laid down in the EOWC. Two participation modes are proposed:

3 1. Implementing members: standard-setting organisations, having agreed to follow the principles and the rules of the EOWC as minimum requirements and to work out with inspection bodies rules for certification of the EOWC. 2. Supporting members: producer organisations, inspection & certification bodies, trading companies, retailers, research and advisory institutions and non-governmental organisations, which will support the EOWC in a broader sense. Condition for participating as implementing member is to commit with a contractual agreement to guarantee that the own private standards fulfils the principles and the minimum requirements for wine-making of the EOWC. All participants are free to adopt private standards more restrictive than EOWC. The initiative wants to keep a very simple structure for the time being. At a later stage, in case no EU Commission rules for organic wine can be achieved in the near future, a more formalised structure, e.g. as umbrella association, is envisaged. 6. Agreement among the members of the initiative All members of the initiative agree to: support the principles and minimum requirements of the EOWC, lobby on European and national level that the EU Commission will recognize common rules for organic wine; publicly communicate their support the EOWC; refer to EOWC contents and principles in any pertinent activity (research, extension, promotion campaigns etc.) The implementing members in addition agree to: guarantee that their standards fulfil of the minimum requirements of the EOWC and agree with control bodies the procedure for inspections, certification and labelling; ensure that any reference to the EOWC is correctly applied; report once a year to the EOWC secretariat their experiences with the implementation (including a minimum statistics on producers fulfilling EOWC minimum requirements for wine-making). The agreement/code of Conduct will come into force for one year after signing and will be prolonged automatically for another year if the participant does not send an official letter to draw back from the Code of Conduct/EOWC. The agreement might be replaced by a new one in case the European Commission will introduce rules for organic wine in the organic regulation 889/ Claims, labelling and communication Only implementing and participating members, who signed the agreement, are allowed to use the following indication to the Carta: Member of European Organic Wine Carta in their communication materials. Wine-makers fulfilling private standards participating to EOWC, inspected and certified on them, can make reference to the EOWC with the wording respecting the European Organic Wine Carta - on their labels and promotion materials

4 The adhering organisations are responsible for the correct use of the indication. In case of proof of a misuse of the indication, the EOWC Steering Committee can decide to terminate the agreement and will communicate this on the website of the initiative. 8. Organisation Until the organisation has a more developed structure, e.g. formalized into an association, the following structure is foreseen: Steering Committee (5-7members) within the founding members; Secretariat of EOWC. In the second year of activity and if the participation enlarges the following additional structures are foreseen: EOWC forum (with a large group of participants) that will debate the progress of the initiative and possible amendments to the charta; A Surveillance Committee with external members (not directly involved in organic wine production) might be considered for conflict solving. The adhering member organisations will be invited by the EOWC secretariat, to meet and form the EOWC forum at the beginning of 2011 (e.g. at Biofach) and to meet at least annually in the following years. 8.1 Steering Committee It is initially formed by 5 members of the initiating organizations that started the initiative but its composition will be reviewed at the first EOWC forum meeting for potential enlargement. Its task is to take decision on the carta and on the procedures and so address secretariat daily work. The Steering Committee is responsible to find funds for the activities. 8.2 Secretariat The secretariat will be run by the following organisation: ITAB France assisted by FIRAB (Italian Foundation for Organic and Biodinamic Agriculture) Contact :Monique Jonis -ITAB- 149 rue de Bercy Paris cedex monique.jonis@itab.asso.fr Webpage address : The secretariat will have the following tasks: build up a web-site collect the agreements and publish the names of participants on the web-site, including names of the wine producers update the web-pages start a mailing-list run an account. 8.3 Dissemination and information tools To bring to the large public in a transparent way the information on EOWC the tools made available by the secretariat are: a web-page regularly updated with information on the initiative, the list of implementing partners and supporting partners, the list of organic-wine

5 producers certified on the carta, specific private standards based on the EOWC, statistics on the implementation of the initiative; Frequent press-releases that can be translated by partners in national languages and further fostered to national press and opinion leaders; an annual event (i.e. at Biofach or Millesime Bio) for dissemination. For internal communication the tools are: a mailing list in English for all participants; an internal part of the web-page with open forum; annual evaluation meeting (EOWC forum) where further developments are discussed. 8.4 Financial participation Until the EOWC has a more formalised structure, the financial participation will be on a voluntary basis. The offers will be collected directly by the EOWC Secretariat and activities will depend on the funds collected