Brussels, 14/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - Food waste is an issue that the EU needs to address resolutely, in the view of the European Parliament and it wants to know what the European Commission intends to do about it.
Thus, in the wake of the Parliament vote on shifting towards a circular economy, MEP György Hölvényi (EPP, Hungary), jointly with the Hungarian Food Bank Association, submitted written questions to the Commission on Monday 13 July asking the measures it was planning to take to reduce the amount of food waste in the EU.
Hölvényi also wants answers on the financial resources the Commission intends to commit to achieve its goals. He enquired, too, whether the Commission planned to propose 2016 as the year for food waste reduction.
With its decision of 9 July, the European Parliament called for a legally binding goal of a 30% reduction in food waste by shops, the hospitality industry and households by 2025 and for the Commission to promote among the member states conventions between supermarkets and charitable organisations that would see unsold foodstuffs going to the charities (see EUROPE 11355).
Hölvényi highlighted that European citizens waste some 90 million tonnes of food every year, or 180 kilos of food per person. Often up to 50% of good, edible food ends up in the rubbish bin in households, shops, restaurants and at other points in the food supply chain. At the same time, 79 million EU citizens live in poverty and 16 million depend on food provided by charitable organisations. “Food banks, charity and other civic organisations may play a significant role in the efforts to decrease food waste”, states the MEP. The Commission now has six weeks in which to respond.
When it presented its package on the circular economy precisely one year ago, the previous Commission withheld the communication on sustainable food, saying at the time that work was continuing on the matter. It nevertheless proposed a 30% reduction in food waste by 2025 as a non-binding objective (see EUROPE 11113). (Aminata Niang)