Killarney, 11/05/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Member States experts, meeting within the Special Agricultural Committee (SAC) in Killarney (Ireland) on Monday, were divided on the issue of improvements to be made to the Community labelling system for bovine meat, especially to create an "EU origin" logo. The Agriculture Ministers of the EU are to debate this dossier at the end of June.
The European Commission's idea, which was launched in a report adopted at the end of April, to state on the label that the meat is of EU origin rather than that of the Member State (EUROPE of 29 April, p.13), was rejected by a majority of delegations, especially the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Greece, Portugal, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Luxembourg, Latvia and Slovenia (less emphatically by Belgium, Estonia and Spain). These countries stressed the need to improve consumer information, especially after the BSE crisis. However, seven countries supported the suggestion contained in the report (Italy, Netherlands, Ireland, Denmark, Poland, Slovakia, Lithuania), which would also help to avoid situations of national preference and competition distortion within the single market. The Commission's representative to the SAC stated that an EU label rather than that of the country of origin would soon be the case in other areas (organic production, dairy products, fruit and vegetables), and added that in the medium term, a single system was required for better harmonisation of legislation. Several Member States (United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Finland, Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Latvia and Czech Republic) agreed with the Commission, taking position against extending labelling provisions to processed beef-based products, reconstituted beef products and beef destined for catering, private or state. Others (France, Portugal, Sweden and Ireland) supported the extension of labelling rules to these products (with certain differences).
Furthermore, France and Italy called for a more specific definition of the different categories of veal (in Italy, the calf must be under 6 months old, compared to 9 months in the Netherlands, for example).