Agricultural Revolution: Regulation 1234/2007

A brand new regulation - Council Regulation (EC) n° 1234/2007 of October 22nd 2007 establishing a common organization of agricultural markets and on specific provisions for certain agricultural products (Single CMO Regulation) - published recently brings about a quiet revolution in the agricultural sector. Not a revolution as dramatic as that brought about by Jethro Tull or Turnip Townshend but an important change in the legislative environment nonetheless.

Regulation 1234/2007 replaces 21 separate regulations establishing common organizations of markets for different agricultural products. It establishes a system common to all the products concerned. Those products include live trees, ornamental flowers, pigmeat, eggs, poultrymeat, raw tobacco, bananas, fruit and vegetables, processed fruit and vegetables, beef and veal, milk, wine, flax and hemp, sheep and goat meat, cereals, rice, dried fodder, olive oil, seeds, hops and sugar.

Up until now, each product had its own regulation setting up a common organization of the market. The consequence was a considerable degree of overlap between them and sometimes different mechanisms were adopted to solve similar or identical problems.

Of course, different rules will exist to take account of the particularities of each product. Nevertheless, the single regulation should simplify the regulatory environment considerably.

Regulation 1234/2007 enters into application on January 1st 2008.

For some useful background information on the Commission's proposal, see here. Some interesting "Questions and Answers" are available here.