On Tuesday 27 February, the day after a major demonstration by the farming sector in the European quarter of Brussels, the European Commission called on farmers to share their experiences of unfair trading practices.
A questionnaire designed to gather feedback from EU farmers and small suppliers active in the food supply chain has been launched online. It will be open until 15 March. The results of the survey will then be anonymised and published on the Commission’s website.
“Respondents can indicate whether they have recently been confronted with unfair trading practices or whether current legislation offers them sufficient protection against economically stronger buyers”, said the Commission in a press release on Tuesday.
The Commission is referring to the Unfair Trading Practices Directive in business-to-business relations, adopted in April 2019 by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU. The Commission is thus seeking to assess the effectiveness of the measures taken by the Member States, which are required to have transposed the directive into their national legal frameworks by 1 May 2021.
On Thursday 22 February, the European Commission presented proposals to simplify administrative procedures and reduce the burden on EU farmers (see EUROPE 13356/3).
Link to the online survey: https://aeur.eu/f/b1l (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)