At the Agriculture Council on Monday 27 May, in Brussels, the German and Austrian delegations, supported by France, Finland, Estonia and Portugal, called for mandatory origin labelling to be expanded to other foodstuffs.
“We take the view that intensified measures and a legal framework at European level are urgently necessary, keeping in mind the interests of the economy and its financial burden, especially regarding consumer prices”, according to a note from these delegations.
See the note: https://aeur.eu/f/cdd
The agriculture ministers of these countries are asking the Commission to present a legislative proposal as soon as possible to expand mandatory country of origin labelling of foodstuffs at the EU level, which will strengthen the position of European farmers in the food supply chain.
Before the Council, the German minister, Cem Özdemir, said: “The Commission has broken its promise to finally make origin labelling mandatory throughout the European Union”. He hoped that the Commission would take action in this area “at the latest during the next term of office”, by presenting “a legislative proposal”.
Currently, a variety of European obligations to indicate the country of origin are already in place for some products (beef, pork, sheep, goat and poultry meat, eggs, fresh fruit and vegetables, honey, olive oil, organic products).
Luis Planas, the Spanish minister, supported this request and spoke of the need to expand the rules to rice and pulses in particular.
Poland, Ireland and Bulgaria have advocated for an impact study before any new proposal. Luxembourg has called for “optional” origin labelling, while Denmark is “dubious” about the German plan.
The Commission has said it is considering new rules for fruit and vegetables and dried fruit, and the new Commission is expected to take up the issue of origin labelling.
Slovakia also felt (https://aeur.eu/f/cdj ) that the issue of “dual quality” foodstuffs was “far from being resolved” and that it persisted throughout the EU, and continues to “undermine the consumers’ trust” in the Single Market. Slovakia considers it unacceptable that European consumers are still treated differently in a discriminatory way. The Commission is considering new rules (fruit and vegetables, dried fruit). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)