IDA Organic Farming Global Implementation Plan

Transcription

1 TAC DOC 05.1 IDA Organic Farming Global Implementation Plan 1. DESCRIPTION OF THE NETWORK OR NETWORKS INTENDED TO BE ESTABLISHED UNDER THE PROJECT 1.1 Objectives The objectives of the Organic Farming project are in the frame of the Organic Farming regulations: To facilitate the work of the Member States, of the Commission and of the delegations in the Standing Committee on Organic Farming To improve the communication between the Member States and the Commission by providing means for the gathering of the information and its easy dissemination. 1.2 Functionalities The major functionalities of the Organic Information system are: Facilitate the work between the Commission and the Member States delegations in the Standing Committee on Organic Farming and the working groups thereof a) List of members of the Standing Committee b) Reports of the meetings of the Standing Committee and the working group c) Working documents for the Standing Committee and working groups These components listed in the Preparatory Report (Organic Farming Global Implementation Plan IDAII D FINAL) will be covered through the groupware platform that is currently used (CIRCA) Management of notifications and information exchange required by the Regulation a) Implementation of Article 3 of Regulation n 207/93: database of non-organic ingredients provisionally authorised by the Member States In the future Organic Farming system the Member State notifies the Commission and the other Member States of authorised ingredients through the use of a webbased application. After confirmation of the notification by a responsible from the Member State, E- mail messages are automatically sent to the Commission and the other Member

2 States to inform of the occurrence of a new notification. Each message contains an HTML link to the newly confirmed notification. These messages replace the more traditional notification letters that are currently sent. The Member States and the Commission can query the database on confirmed ingredient authorisations or can download one of the consolidated lists of ingredient authorisations (one per community language). This list (contestations excluded) will be made available to the European citizens. For Member States already having a working Organic Farming application at their premises, it could be convenient if the future Organic Farming system accepted to receive notification messages (the use of a notification message would be an alternative to the filling of a form in the web-based application). NewIdes (IDA generic application permitting the extraction, the validation and the reformatting of messages) could be used to process those notification messages. b) Implementation of Article 6(3) of Regulation N 2092/91: derogations for seeds and vegetative propagating material The system will be analysed at a later stage, after reception of the necessary information from the Member States. c) Implementation of Article 10a: irregularities and infringements The opinion of the Standing Committee on Organic Farming (meeting in Brussels on 14 December 2000) is that there is no need to specific developments because the exchanged information is very variable. CIRCA is very flexible (no limiting framework) and will be used to organise the data exchanges. d) Implementation of Article 11(6): authorisations on equivalency for imports from third countries In the future Organic Farming system the Member State notifies the Commission and the other Member States of authorisations on equivalency for imports through the use of a web-based application. After confirmation of the import authorisation notification by a responsible from the Member State, messages are automatically sent to the Commission and the other Member States. These messages replace the more traditional notification letters that are currently sent. The Member States and the Commission can query the database on confirmed import authorisations or can download one of the consolidated lists of import authorisations (one per community language). For Member States already having a working Organic Farming application at their premises, it could be convenient if the future Organic Farming system accepted to receive notification messages. NewIdes could be used to process those notification messages. 2

3 In the development of the application it must be taken into account that in the future, certain information will be made available to the European citizens. e) Implementation of Article 15, last paragraph: list of approved inspection bodies or authorities In the future Organic Farming system the Member State uploads to the Commission an updated list of approved inspection bodies or authorities at any time (at least once a year). The list must respect a predefined format. The uploaded list is processed nightly: validation and storage in the database. After processing the system automatically sends to the Member State a request for approving the updated contents of the database. If the Member State approves the updated contents, the new information becomes available to the European citizens otherwise the system is reverted to the situation before the processing of the submitted list. The European citizens can query the database on approved inspection bodies or authorities or can download one of the consolidated lists of approved inspection bodies or authorities (one per community language). f) Implementation of the provisions on exchange of information provided for in Article 15 of Regulation (EEC) n 2092/91 In the future Organic Farming system the Member State uploads to the Commission an updated list of operators at any time. The list must respect a predefined format. The uploaded list is processed nightly: validation and storage in the database. After processing, the system automatically sends to the Member State a request for approving the updated contents of the database. If the Member State approves the updated contents, the new information becomes available to the European citizens otherwise the system is reverted to the situation before the processing of the submitted list. In the development of the application it must be taken into account that in the future, the European citizens may query the database on operators. g) Other information circulated under Article 15 Together with Eurostat, DG AGRI developed guidelines concerning different information (statistical information) to be submitted every year. The application should provide for a mechanism permitting Member States (but also accession countries and some third countries) to submit this information and to store it in the database. This part of the database would be accessible to Member States, Commission and Eurostat. 3

4 1.2.3 Basic information to be kept available to producers, processors, importers, exporters, inspection bodies and authorities in the E.U. and third countries Basic information (Regulation, detailed rules) will be available through the application Global points a) Multi-linguism All the European languages are covered. b) Product codifications A single codification composed of several components will be used. It consists of the Combined Nomenclature code, a base product codification, a set of qualifiers and a free text field for comments. Whenever a Member State executive cannot find a codification corresponding with a product or ingredient, he/she sends a request for product code to the Commission (the Commission responds with new or existing codes). 1.3 Participants Member States The Member States: Encode their notifications (ingredient authorisation notification or import notification). Encode the contestations on the ingredient authorisations. Upload new lists of their approved inspection bodies or authorities. Upload new lists of their operators. Approve the contents of the database after the loading of a new list of approved inspection bodies or authorities or a new list of operators. Are informed via s of the occurrence of newly confirmed notifications and can receive additional information through querying the database (e.g. last import authorisations) and consulting the predefined reports Commission The Commission: Assists the Member States (DG AGRI - helpdesk). Uses the application: 4

5 Answers to requests for product codes issued by Member States executives (DG AGRI). Maintains the various used codifications (DG AGRI for the codifications e.g. product codification, country code -; the Translation Service for the translation of the descriptions). Maintains the application and assures the availability of the system (DG AGRI). Is informed via s of the occurrence of newly confirmed notifications (DG AGRI) European citizens The European citizens: Have access to certain information agreed by DG AGRI after consultation of the SCOF (e.g. the approved inspection bodies, non-organic ingredients). 1.4 Technical approach The future Organic Farming system will use where appropriate IDA generic services (TESTA, CIRCA) and will be developed according to the IDA guidelines. The intention is to offer an application that will not necessitate the installation of any particular software in the Member States: only a web-browser will be necessary to use the application. The diagram below illustrates the overall communication network. 5

6 European citizens Internet Member States Eurogate TESTA Eurogate Data/Telecom Centre Network EC DG AGRI 2. ASSIGNMENT OF ROLES AND TASKS TO THE COMMUNITY AND TO THE MEMBER STATES THROUGHOUT THE SUBSEQUENT DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION AND IMPLEMENTATION PHASE The Commission (DG AGRI) is responsible for the overall co-ordination of the project. 3. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EXPECTED BENEFITS Significant reduction of paper volume The import notifications and the ingredient authorisation notifications will be sent electronically. The notification letters will no more be necessary. Each notification is sent by the issuing Member State to the 14 other Member States and to the Commission. There are around import notifications per year, 100 ingredient authorisation notifications per year and 80 renewals and withdrawals per year. The number of dispatched and received notification letters is thus: ( ) * (14 + 1) = letters/year. Benefit: notification letters are no more necessary Improvement of the transmission time of the information 6

7 The delays for transmitting the notifications will be reduced (less than one day to reach the final recipient instead of more than 4 days with notification letters). Benefit: 75 % of transmission time. Overall improvement of the quality, the accuracy and the pertinence of the information The notifications will be standardised (better quality of the information) and their recording in the database will be controlled (better accuracy of the information). The various predefined reports will be built daily taking into account the latest submitted data (better pertinence of the information). Benefit: better information. 4. EQUITABLE SHARING BETWEEN THE COMMUNITY AND THE INSTITUTIONS OF THE OPERATIONAL AND MAINTENANCE COSTS OF THE NETWORK CONCERNED ON CONCLUSION OF THE IMPLEMENTATION PHASE 4.1 Foreseen costs for the development and validation phase Estimated price for the development of the specific software necessary for the future Organic Farming system and for the recovering of the existing data: Euro. The development of the future Organic Farming system is funded completely by the IDA budget. 4.2 Foreseen costs for the implementation phase The Commission provides for its side of the needed application infrastructure (e.g. servers). The Member States make provisions for the needed client hardware and software: personal computer and web-browser 4.3 Cost-sharing schema after implementation The following principles shall apply: The DG AGRI will bear the maintenance costs of the application software (Organic Farming system) Estimated price for the corrective and evolution maintenance of the specific software: Euro/year. The communication fees will be split according to the IDA schema. 7