At the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) on Tuesday 14 November, the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU was able to see that there was broad support among Member States for a compromise text on the proposal to revise the marketing standards applicable to agri-food products such as fruit and vegetables, fruit juices, jams, honey, poultry and eggs.
As far as the labelling of honey is concerned, according to the Spanish Presidency’s compromise text obtained by EUROPE, the label must mention the country or countries of origin of the product, in descending order, and include their percentage share. Member States can decide to only show the percentage of the four largest shares. If there is a fifth, sixth or seventh country of origin with the same percentage as the fourth, they should all be included (see EUROPE 13272/7).
In the case of fruit juices, operators may include information on naturally occurring sugar.
The Spanish Presidency of the Council has therefore been given a mandate to negotiate an agreement with the European Parliament on this text.
Next steps: Parliament’s Environment Committee will vote on the Breakfast Directive on 29 November. The vote at the European Parliament plenary session is scheduled for 11-14 December in Strasbourg.
Technical meetings could begin between now and the end of December, after which the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU would take over from 1 January 2024.
Links to the Spanish Presidency’s compromise text: https://aeur.eu/f/9k8 ; https://aeur.eu/f/9k7 (Original text in French by Lionel Changeur)