European countries continue to be divided over the need for EU legislation to ban and penalise unfair trading practices in the food supply chain (see EUROPE 11668 and 11667).
The Slovak Presidency of the Council remains hopeful that it will be successful in Brussels on Monday 12 December in having agriculture ministers adopt Council conclusions on increasing the power of farmers in the food supply chain. Differences between countries over EU legislation to ban unfair trading practices suggest, however, that the Council will only be able to adopt Presidency conclusions (agreement among ministers is required for Council conclusions to be adopted).
At the meeting of the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) on Monday 28 November, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and France said that the conclusions should not call on the European Commission to present EU legislation to tackle unfair practices. The European Parliament, along with a number of member states (including Ireland, Italy and the Czech Republic), is calling for just such Community legislation.
The Slovak Presidency submitted a new conclusions text on the food supply chain to the SCA experts on Monday 28 November. This new draft differs slightly from the previous version, with a gentler tone on some issues (introduction of the subsidiarity principle, observance of national systems and cutting red tape). The text underlines the importance of voluntary initiatives and includes new paragraphs, on risk management and standard contracts.
Several delegations gave a relatively warm welcome to the draft text, aside from differences of opinion on unfair trading practices. The SCA will discuss the conclusions text on the food supply chain once again on Monday 5 December. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)