Brussels, 22/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 30 January, the European Commission is expected to adopt a proposal aiming to combat shortcomings in the programmes for the distribution of milk, fruit and vegetables in schools. The Commission believes that it is time to reinforce the educational dimension of the programmes and to unify the legislative and financial provisions. The budgetary envelopes already earmarked for these actions (€150 million a year for fruit and vegetables and €80 million for milk) will remain unchanged, although the two programmes will be merged.
The Commission suggests establishing a joint legislative and financial framework for the distribution of fruit and vegetables and milk to schoolchildren and reinforcing the accompanying educational measures in order to reaffirm the link with agriculture and the variety of agricultural products, as well as with health and environmental issues. The budget will be kept at the level laid down in the framework of the common agriculture policy (CAP) 2020.
Refocusing the programmes on distribution. The Commission suggests that school distribution should be refocused on two main products: fresh fruit (including bananas) and vegetables and milk for drinking (in which the fat content level will be laid down by the national health services). However, the member states will be able to add a broader range of agricultural products in the framework of thematic educational measures.
Unifying the financial provisions. The Commission is also proposing to unify and improve the financial provisions of the programmes. Given the differences between the products and their supply chains, as well as consumption habits which vary between countries, separate envelopes will be allocated to the member states for fruit and vegetables and for milk. In total, these will come to €150 million and €80 million respectively each school year. A certain amount of leeway will be built in to allow each country to carry out limited transfers of allocations between the two envelopes. Within these envelopes, upper limits will be laid down by the Commission for the funding of educational measures and other provisions, such as assessment, monitoring and communication.
Under the Commission's proposal, the level of the EU's contribution in relation to the prices of the products distributed in schools will be limited to a maximum amount of aid per portion for fruit and vegetables and for milk, rather than an overall co-funding level as is currently the case for the fruit and vegetable programme. This measure will help to balance out the sharp disparities in price for the fruit and vegetables distributed and make it easier to manage the programme. The level of Community subsidy for milk will be increased to allow distribution with few or no additional costs. In addition, the member states will still be authorised to provide top-up financial support or to seek private funding to increase the intensity of their activity within the programmes.
Reinforcing the educational dimension. Lastly, the educational support measures will become a requirement for milk distribution as well, as is already the case for fruit and vegetables. These will focus on agricultural subjects, nutrition, health and environmental issues. The educational measures will target schoolchildren and, if possible, their families.
Within this framework, the member states will be able to choose initiatives relating to agricultural products other than the two main ones, for example yoghurt, processed fruit and vegetables, honey and olive oil. The list of products concerned and their nutritional aspects will have to be approved by the national health services. (LC/transl.fl)