Paolo De Castro (S&D, Italy), the European Parliament rapporteur on unfair trading practices, hopes to extend the scope of future legislation, in particular to provide coverage of more agricultural products and stakeholders.
While generally giving his backing to the proposal for a directive presented by the Commission in April to protect farmers and intermediary SMEs against unfair trading practices on the part of buyers within the food supply chain, De Castro, as rapporteur of the European Parliament’s committee on agriculture, recommends a series of amendments for “improving its effectiveness” (see EUROPE 12037).
The rapporteur underlines that completion of the legislative procedure on the proposal relating to this issue by the end of the current legislature is an objective that is both important and realistic.
Extension of scope. The amendments in De Castro’s draft report on the proposal for a directive on “unfair trading practices in business-to-business relationships in the food supply chain”, include extension of its scope to: - suppliers in the food supply chain which are not SMEs, in order to include farmers’ organisations; - and all agricultural products in order to include the horticultural sector, feed industry, and other agricultural sectors not falling under food production.
In addition, De Castro recommends extension of the definition of buyer to cover operators who, though established outside the EU, buy and sell products in the EU market, as well as the associated services (in addition to processing, distribution and retail).
The rapporteur, moreover, recommends inclusion of a definition of the notion of “economic dependence”, the introduction of a payment term for non-perishable products at 60 days from the receipt of the invoice, the drawing up of written contracts at the request of the supplier, extension to representative associations of the right to lodge a complaint on behalf of one or more of their members, and the obligation for the enforcement authority to start an investigation within 60 days from the date on which the complaint is lodged, and to conclude it within six months (12 months in duly justified cases).
Work in Council. The outgoing Bulgarian presidency of the Council of the EU has prepared a first draft compromise text, of which the broad lines gained the support of experts from the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) on 11 June. It provides for extension of the scope of the proposal and grants greater flexibility to member states for maintaining or introducing stricter rules on condition that these are not detrimental to the single market.
On Friday 29 June, the EU organisations and cooperatives (COPA-COGECA) hailed the first work by the rapporteur on unfair trading practices. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)