On 26 March, the Bulgarian Presidency of the EU Council presented a document to the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) on food waste and food refuse. Their aim was to pave the way for discussion by European ministers in Luxembourg, on 16 April, on progress made in the implementation of conclusions adopted in 2016 on the subject of food waste (see EUROPE 11582, 11898).
Ministers will be invited to answer two questions: - How is EU-level and national level progress as regards the 2016 Council conclusions to be assessed? And is this rate considered sufficient or should there be other measures to meet the commitment to reduce food waste? About one third of all food in the world is wasted (including in Europe).
The Bulgarian presidency’s paper underlines that, for now, there is still insufficient collection of data in the EU, which makes it difficult to assess the amount of food waste and how much progress has been made.
Concrete measures soon to be taken? In a written response to a parliamentary question, the European commissioner for health, Vytenis Andriukaitis, points out that, as part of the circular economy package, the Commission has suggested that member states should take measures to reduce food waste throughout the food supply chain.
These requirements will be adopted “within a few months and should be translated into policies and national legislation”.
In order to allow member states to measure the extent of food waste, the Commission will be entrusted with the task of setting up methodology for measuring food waste. With respect to this obligation, it is already carrying out preparatory work on food waste surveillance in cooperation with the EU platform on food waste and refuse. As part of its position on the regulation concerning the circular economy, the European Parliament has suggested setting an objective for reducing food waste by half by 2030 (see EUROPE 11789). In its initial proposal, the Commission had not set a quantified target. (Original version in French by Lionel Chargeur)