At the Agriculture Council in Brussels on Monday 17 July, Belgium, with the support notably of Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic, criticised the French system of compulsory labelling of origin for meats and milk (see EUROPE 11700).
Federal Agriculture Minister Willy Borsus restated his country’s opposition to the French compulsory labelling system and called on the Commission to carry out an assessment to measure trends in exports and price increases. “Exports of milk from Belgium to France have fallen by more than 16% since June 2016 compared with the same period the previous year”, Borsus said. Belgium has always called for labelling at national level to be voluntary in order to avoid any distortion of competition.
Obstruction of free movement of goods. The Luxembourg minister Fernand Etgen said that his country was against any compulsory system of labelling of origin. “A harmonised compulsory system for dairy products would result in a significant increase in production costs and a serious impact on regional cross-border trade”, he argued. In his view, the un-harmonised setting up of such a system nationally, as France has done, has an impact on the flow of goods. “The Belgian figures show a clear distortion of the internal market”, he stated. The French arrangements are not compatible with the provisions of the treaty or the case-law on the free movement of goods, he said.
“We see a risk of market turbulence and of non-compliance with the principle of freedom of movement”, said the German delegation, which backs voluntary (rather than compulsory) labelling of origin. Germany is of the view that there is a requirement to state the country of origin only when a link can be established between origin and quality; “but this is not the case with standardised products like milk”.
The Czech Republic backed Belgium in its concerns. “Let us not forget the single market”, stated Marian Jurečka, who backs voluntary indication.
Report at end of 2018. New French Agriculture Minister Stéphane Travert stated that the goal of the scheme “is clearly not to upset the operation of the internal market. It’s a trial”, he assured. The aim is to increase transparency and traceability along the food supply chain. “It comes in response to very strong demand from consumers. And this national-level trial could be the first stage towards the EU-wide harmonisation that we, and the European Parliament, would like to see”, he said.
France feels that it is premature, at this juncture, to conduct an evaluation of the system that has only been in place for a few months. France will present a report on its labelling scheme at the end of 2018.
Portugal supports compulsory labelling of the country of origin for reasons of differentiation and believes that compulsory labelling increases transparency and can give greater information to consumers. Finland spoke of a national-level pilot project on indicating the origin of meat and dairy products. Greece said that it did not agree with the Belgian calls and supported the interests of consumers and producers. It protested against certain national provisions on describing yoghurt as “Greek yoghurt”. Italy also has a system of compulsory national labelling of origin for milk and milk-based products.
The European Commission said that France and the countries concerned would submit a report to it on how national arrangements on the labelling of origin operate and on the impact on the internal market. “Once we have these reports, we will have more detailed data that we can use to make an in-depth assessment”, said Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)