Brussels, 17/11/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Monday, without debate, the Council adopted a regulation on certain standards for the marketing of eggs. The United Kingdom abstained as it considered it was unnecessary to mark all eggs under local public contracts. The main change to the initial proposal concerns the date when the regulation for eggs sold by small producers (sales on local public markets) can be applied, set at 1 July 2005. For the other producers, the date of application is 1 January 2004. The regulation provides for eggs (Category A eggs and washed eggs) to be identified by a distinctive number for the producer allowing the kind of farming to be identified. The other changes brought in by the agricultural experts of Member States are: - the possibility for packaging centres that washed eggs before 1 June 2003, to market these eggs in parts of the Community where the member States have given authorisations (such eggs are classified as "washed eggs"); and the possibility of exporting refrigerated eggs to overseas departments given the fact that travel time is over 21 days.