Civil Dialogue Groups – New members + new space on the extranet!

As voice of the European organic sector, IFOAM Organics Europe is in contact with EU institutions through different channels. One of these are the Civil Dialogue Group meetings.

Civil Dialogue Groups (CDGs) assist the Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) of the European Commission and act as a forum of consultation between it and stakeholders’ organisations at the EU level. Stakeholders range from farming associations, socio-economic interest groups, civil society groups and trade unions. IFOAM Organics Europe represents the movement and its vision in all 13 different CDG’s, each of which focuses on a different topic, ranging from the Common Agricultural Policy to organic farming, arable products and much more.

The range of expertise needed for this, could not be provided by IFOAM Organics Europe’s staff alone. We rely greatly on our members to represent the organic movement at these meetings.

Following a short and easy application process, interested members are assigned a two-years mandate by our board. This spring, our members received a call to represent the EU organic movement at CDGs for the next period. A list of new members is available on the member extranet.

To facilitate our interaction with our members in CDGs and share information with all of our members alike, we have created a new space on the extranet. It gives you easy access to agendas, presentations and minutes of these meetings, shows upcoming CDGs and provides you with useful links.

Should you have any questions regarding Civil Dialogue Groups, please write to [email protected]. Are you an IFOAM Organics Europe member who does not have access to our member extranet yet? Contact [email protected].