The conference of the chairs of the European parliament committees finally agreed at the end of May that it should be the agriculture committee which reviews the draft directive on unfair trading practices within the food supply chain (see EUROPE 12002). That decision was formalised on Thursday 7 June.
The rapporteur will be Paolo De Castro (S&D, Italy). The internal market committee, which considered that the matter fell within its ambit, will only be “associated”, with Marc Tarabella (S&D, Belgium), alternate member of that committee and full member of the agriculture committee, as rapporteur.
“It’s a very ambitious directive and we will have to work to make it more ambitious”, said De Castro. The draft directive, which was presented by the European Commission on 12 April, seeks to offer greater protection for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) against unfair trading practices in their relations with non-SME buyers. It leaves the member states considerable latitude. The agriculture committee rapporteur hopes that MEPs will be in a position to vote on the matter in the October plenary session so that the legislative process can be concluded before the European elections.
Experts back extending scope. In discussions within the Council of the EU working group considering the Commission proposals, a large majority of member states supported extending the scope of the text to include suppliers and buyers big and small (universal coverage) or, at least, include SMEs as buyers. They also called for clarification on the room for manoeuvre that would make it possible to introduce higher national levels of protection against unfair practices. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)