Brussels, 20/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's agriculture committee called on 12 November for the European Commission to propose framework EU legislation to tackle unfair trading practices in the food supply chain.
In adopting the draft report by Irish Christian Democrat Mairead McGuinness (39 votes in favour and 2 abstentions), MEPs state that this legislation and other further provisions to boost farmers' bargaining power should complement the EU-level supply chain initiative and other voluntary initiatives, which should also be updated inter alia to allow anonymous complaints.
These initiatives, MEPs say, are important but they are not enough to eliminate the fear factor from the supply chain and have major drawbacks, including a lack of genuine penalties for non-compliance.
The opinion has been submitted to the internal market committee which has the lead on this issue. The internal market committee is due to adopt a (non-legislative) report on 7 December. The plenary session vote will take place in January or February 2016 and will form the European Parliament's response to the communication of July 2014 - “Tackling unfair trading practices in the business-to-business food supply chain” (see EUROPE 11122). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)