Brussels, 11/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - Without debate on Monday 11 April, EU member states' agriculture ministers adopted a regulation on the programme for handing out fruit, vegetables and milk in schools (see EUROPE 11525).
The Netherlands and Hungary voted against, and the United Kingdom abstained. The regulation is the result of very difficult talks with the European Parliament. It adjusts and combines the EU scheme for milk at school with the EU scheme for fruit and vegetables at school. The new measures will be applicable from 1 August 2017 onwards.
A battle of powers with the European Parliament. The European Parliament managed to get the member states to agree to codecision powers (Article 43.2 of the European Treaty) for three budgetary aspects of the new fruit and vegetables and milk distribution programmes in schools: the overarching provision, including how funding is divided among the two product categories; the criteria for how money is to be broken down among the member states, and the option of member states transferring a percentage of the finance from one programme to the other. In a statement, Germany, backed by Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic Estonia, Poland, Slovenia and the Netherlands welcomes the fact that the indicative breakdown of the aid (€150 million a year for fruit and vegetables and €100 million for milk) will remain solely in the hands of the Council of Ministers, in other words, based on Article 43.3 of the European Treaty. These countries feel that this Article would also have been more appropriate for the transfer of from one programme to the other.
In a separate statement, Lithonia says that all the budgetary measures should be taken by the Council alone and says that use of Article 43.2 must not 'become a precedent.' It says that merging the two programmes 'does not provide any value-added.' Finally, in a third statement, Hungary says that it suggested setting indicative amounts for the two programmes based on historical criteria and regrets that historical criteria only come into play as the third criterion for the school milk distribution scheme. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)