Brussels, 24/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - The EU Court of Auditors said on Monday 24 October that the Community scheme to provide milk in schools, “at best, still has very limited impact”. It stated, however, that most of the weaknesses that were identified in the School Milk Scheme have been noted and, at least in part, taken into consideration by the Commission in its planning of the scheme to distribute fruit and vegetables in schools.
In terms of the anticipated short-term impact (the provision of milk in schools), the Court found that the scheme is achieving very little. Due, in particular, to the low subsidy rate, the scheme continues to be relatively unattractive and, as a result, generally has no more than a deadweight effect. In most cases, the products subsidised either would have been included in canteen meals anyway or would probably have been bought by the beneficiaries even without the subsidy, the Court says. The audit showed that, while the decision by certain member states to organise distribution free of charge has given rise in a more satisfactory impact, this form of distribution is at present covered by costly national schemes to which the Community budget makes only a marginal contribution.
Regarding the anticipated long-term impact (education), the Court found that, at present, the scheme takes insufficient account of the stated educational goals. In particular, distribution is not always made obvious, and no other specific educational measures have been introduced.
The Court brought forward a number of main recommendations. If the Milk Scheme is to have a real impact on the volume of milk consumed in schools, the subsidy paid per kilogram should be increased very significantly to a level where milk can be distributed free of charge. This recommendation would not, however, entail increased EU spending; on the contrary, it would mean focusing resources on a narrower target population, which could also effectively contribute to addressing the problem of deadweight. The population to be targeted would have to be determined in the light of a scale of nutritional needs. Secondly, where the Milk Scheme is concerned, steps should be taken to limit the specific deadweight effect associated with distribution through canteens, whilst taking care to ensure maximum visibility for the scheme.
With regard to the fruit and vegetable distribution scheme, “while it is still too early to come to any definitive conclusions about the new scheme's ultimate effectiveness, it does nonetheless appear considerably more likely to achieve its short- and long-term objectives”, the Court found. “As such, it offers some indication as to how the Milk Scheme might be improved.”
Under the common agricultural policy (CAP), the European Union has two similar instruments specifically targeting children: - the School Milk Scheme, through which grants have been available since 1977 for the sale of reduced-rate milk products in schools; - the School Fruit Scheme, which has co-financed the distribution of fruit and vegetables in schools since the 2009-10 school year.
The audit was carried out at the Commission and in Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom. These six member states (the last two were participating in the Milk Scheme only) accounted for 75 % of Milk Scheme payments in 2009 and 63 % of the budget estimate for the first year of the Fruit Scheme. In 1999, external evaluation was conducted across the EU of the School Milk Scheme. The evaluation was extremely critical of the scheme and it recommended termination of it because of its low effectiveness and poor cost/benefit ratio. The Commission proposed that the scheme be wound up - a proposal that was rejected by the Council. In response to this political decision, the Commission then submitted new proposals with a view to reducing the Community contribution to the scheme. These were only partially accepted. Since 1999, the Commission has sought to improve the scheme through minor adjustments, but these “have in no way responded to the fundamental criticisms concerning the scheme's basic conception”, the Court found.
“When divided by the number of children in the European Union, the expenditure that is currently budgeted for each scheme gives between 50 and 80 cents per child per year. On this scale, it is also hard to imagine it having a significant influence on the eating habits of the target population as a whole”, the report states. The Court also noted that the level of spending on school milk is not set directly by the Commission but is the aggregate of individual choices by applicants and potential beneficiaries. The €74 million spent in 2009 accounts for less than 10 % of the potential maximum for expenditure under the scheme. “The take-up rate is low and the policy relatively unattractive”, according to the report. The audit revealed that this unattractiveness was largely the result of the low level of aid combined with the disproportionate burden of administration.
Although any canteen can use eligible milk products for which it could receive the minimum amount in aid simply by applying for it, only 60 % of establishments in France, and barely 15 % in Italy, submit an application. (LC/transl.rt)