Overall educational project objective
The general objective of the training is to ensure the correct enforcement of the European Union legislative and policy framework for organic production and labelling of organic products. The training shall help EU and non-EU officials including staff from delegated control bodies to become familiar with the scope, structure and objectives of the new legislative framework in order to facilitate the transition to the new regime focusing on the changes that it brings about, including the practical aspects related to its effective implementation and harmonized procedures. With this the general objective of the BTSF initiative will be reflected in the sessions by supporting learning steps for the expected high level of competence and expertise of staff working in the controlling authorities to better ensure that official controls are carried out more uniform, efficient, objective and adequate.
The specific objectives of the training are:
- To guide the participants to an active preparation by providing selected training materials before the training. This will ensure that they have refreshed the basics of EU organic control systems before their arrival, such as the general obligations, responsibilities and activities of the authorities for organic farming incl. control authorities and bodies. This also enables the desired very comprehensive and in-depth as well as very practical and interactive training to be carried out in the given time;
- To provide an initial overview of the new regulations and comparison to the earlier ones, and also to delve into the practical application of the new regulations on a number of individual topics and, by doing that, other basic elements of the organic control system. Therefore, e.g. details of delegation and supervision by the competent authorities will be included in such selected practical case studies in order to respond to the additional, new, modified or concrete requirements of the Reg. (EU) 2018/848;
- To further improve the knowledge and awareness of the new organic regulation (EU) 2018/848 and consequential control requirements, in ensuring its correct enforcement and in promoting a harmonised approach to the operation of EU and national control systems;
- To dive deeper into key requirements of the EU Official Control and Organic Regulations and empower responsible staff of controlling authorities on NCA, CtlrA and CB level, also including staff from e.g. AB or other relevant official entities on national, regional or local level including border and market control experts by offering specifically selected topics in a practical manner.
- To support the insurance of a consistent and rigorous implementation of the regulatory requirements to contribute to the rapid growth in the organic sector in the past and probably next decade;
- To consider and address weaknesses and raising challenges due to a not sufficiently harmonised control approach in a globally increasing organic sector that also poses higher risks like fraudulent structures;
- To consider and base all training materials on the latest reports and analysis published by the EU Commission, mainly DG SANTE audits reports, statistics, FAQ`s and other key publications provided by relevant official authorities to support the participants in their aims developing and implementing more risk based and effective control procedures;
- To offer balanced theoretical and practical sessions, with emphasis on the practical sessions, including simulations, case studies, group exercises and on-the-spot visits of different organic operators (or possibly group of operators) to gather practical experience on provided information.
- To allow exchange of experience and dissemination of best practices for control activities and relevant procedures of experts working in EU Member States and beneficial countries.
- As Organic production is one of the Europeans Commission’s policy instruments and being in line with the Green Deal, better trained staff of the control authorities will also indirectly contribute the European Commission`s Biodiversity and Farm to Fork Strategies.
We intend to give the participants a clear overview of the subjects and also precise technical details and information that will clearly improve their knowledge on European Union legislative and policy framework for organic production and labelling of organic products It will be covered a large number of essential points, as presented in the training programme and in the agenda, and also as summarized hereafter:
The training will start on Monday afternoon. Participants from non-EU countries can possibly arrive on Sunday. Therefore, all participants are appropriately conditioned at the beginning of the training Monday afternoon and the entire group will be in the training room without any delay and be ready for an effective training.
The content of the different topics is designed to ensure that additional official and controls of organic control entities are carried out by all Member States and relevant non-EU countries in a more harmonized, objective and efficient manner ensuring their correct enforcement according to the training goals mentioned in the Tender Specifications. The content of each presentation will be presented in more details in the weekly program while a more general overview of the topics is presented in the table below. For all tests and quizzes or similar interactive parts, well-designed tools e.g. “Wooclap” will be used.
The training will be implemented over a period of 3 working days, distributed in two half days plus two full days.
General organisation of the training programme:
10 training sessions will be held in three-day course organised in 4 days as follows.
Day 1 – Afternoon session (half-day)
Day 2 – Full day
Day 3 – Full day
Day 4 – Morning session (half-day)
The average training length is of 6h30min-7h a day;
Breaks of about 30 minutes are organized in the morning and in the afternoon, other short breaks will be added during the days as well as 1-hour lunch break each day;
The courses will consist of short, interactive presentations of the key information, which form the basis for the understanding of the contents and act as an introduction for the deeper practical exercises. The different lectures-presentations will be complemented by group discussions - practical applications in the workshop prepared by the tutors, which the trainees - in groups of about 6 people - will implement using supporting material and with the tutors’ assistance.