Wine Law

REGULATION OF ORGANIC WINE IN THE EUROPEAN UNION 233 differences are rather small and are mainly related to issues of scale and degree of development and to legal and administrative traditions. Fernández also notes that the International Task Force on Harmonisation and Equivalence in Organic Agriculture (GAI) 38 developed the International Requirements for Organic Certification Bodies (IROCB) according to the relevant principles of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Guide 65, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and accreditation criteria of the IFOAM. The IROCBs are a reference standard that governments and private accreditation and certification bodies can use to accept organic products certified by foreign control systems, representing, at the same time, a truly international base for trade facilitation since it allows the import of organic products 39 . Both private and public bodies must abide by the basic standards for accreditation of certification bodies established by the ISO 65, in addition to their own specific requirements. As mentioned, in Europe, it is connected to Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007. Operators who sell organic products packaged directly to the consumer or end-user will be exempt from the notification obligation and the obligation to be in possession of the certificate provided for in article 35(2), if they do not produce, prepare, store – except in relation to with the point of sale – or import said products from third countries, nor subcontract to another operator to carry out such activities. The Member States may designate an authority or authorise a body to receive notifications. For their part, operators, groups of operators and subcontractors will keep records of the different activities they carry out. Furthermore, the States will maintain updated lists with the names and addresses of the operators and groups of operators that have reported their activities and will make public, including through links to a single website, a complete list of this data, together with information related to the certificates provided to said operators and groups of operators 40 . Accordingly, article 35 regulates those certificates, establishing that the competent authorities – or, where appropriate, the control authorities or control bodies – will grant a certificate to any operator or group of operators that has notified their activity according to this Regulation. The certificate will 38 GAI was dissolved at its last meeting in Geneva, on 8 October 2008, having completed its mandated tasks. 39 Fernández Pérez, A. (2016). La agricultura ecológica en el marco de la Unión Europea. La Ley Unión Europea, no. 39. 40 When complying, the Member States shall observe the requirements regarding the protection of personal data under Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation).