Brussels, 06/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - At the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) of Monday 4 April, several countries supported the proposal to create a legal framework making it possible to extend the labelling of the origin of foodstuffs. These countries (Italy, France, Austria, Cyprus, Greece, Finland, Portugal…) invoked clear consumer demand for this information.
Labelling the place of production/origin is already compulsory for beef meat, pork meat, mutton/goat and poultry, olive oil, etc. The implementation of the labelling of origin (place of production) on a specific product would be a delegated act implemented by the European Commission, in accordance with the proposals of the Commission dating from last December on the “quality” package (EUROPE 10275). The Commission pointed out at the SCA that the two notions cover different realities: the place of production/origin applies to agricultural products with a geographical level (region, country) to be determined on a case-by-case basis, whereas provenance applies to all food products, whether or not they have been processed: the place of provenance (country of origin) is determined using customs rules (by the degree of processing).
Although a number of countries are in favour of labelling of origin (Italy, France, Portugal, Austria…), a few delegations (notably the Spanish and German ones) questioned the cost to producers of this system of labelling of origin. Some member states, such as the United Kingdom, Germany and Denmark, took the position that the power of determining, on a case-by-case basis, whether a product should benefit from labelling of origin should not be delegated to the European Commission. Some member states, among them Denmark and the Netherlands, have extreme misgivings about the notion of origin labelling. Some delegations (notably Sweden and the Netherlands) stressed that this labelling should be voluntary.
The agriculture ministers of the member states of the EU will discuss this dossier of the “quality” package at their forthcoming meeting, to be held in Luxembourg on Thursday 14 April. The European Parliament will vote on these proposals in June. (L.C./transl.fl)