Bulgarian Minister of Agriculture and Food Kiril Vatev and French Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty Marc Fesneau held a meeting on the sidelines of the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Luxembourg, the Bulgarian Agriculture Ministry reported Tuesday. The meeting was held on the initiative of Minister Vatev and aimed to discuss the problem of essential oil crops in the EU and the impact that the legislative proposal of the European Commission to amend the Regulation on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures could have on their production.
Bulgaria has a world-leader, the National Research and Certification Laboratory, which deals with wine, alcoholic beverages and Bulgarian rose oil testing and research and has the necessary highly qualified scientists. It is ready to prove the safety of natural essential oils, Vatev said. Irrefutable scientific evidence, confirmed by clinical trials, should be sought when introducing such regulations, he stressed.
The Bulgarian minister stressed that the problem is becoming even more acute because it will affect many farmers in mountainous regions in Bulgaria for whom this production is the main livelihood. Minister Fenault said that he had the same concerns for French essential oil producers and therefore supported Bulgaria's position.
They agreed to continue working together to protect the production of these crops.
According to stakeholders, the European Commission proposal for a revision of EU Regulation 1272/2008 as regards hazard classes and criteria for the classification, labelling and packaging (CLP) of substances and mixtures poses "an existential threat" to essential oils. Rose oil may be banned because it contains methyl eugenol even if the toxicology concern generated by individual components may be scientifically shown to be absent in the full oil.
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