Brussels, 16/06/2008 (Agence Europe) -The European Commission is soon to adopt - most likely on 8 July - a proposal to create a programme for the free distribution of fruit and vegetables in school establishments, as already exists for milk and dairy products. In order to do this, the Commission proposes to pledge an envelope of a maximum of €90 million a year. The objective of this initiative is to fight weight problems and obesity and to get children into good eating habits from a very early age. The commitment to launch a programme of this kind was taken during the reform of the fresh and processed fruit and vegetable sector one year ago.
According to a draft text, the Commission proposes that the free distribution of fruit and vegetables (fresh and/or processed), including bananas, will be covered to a level of 50% by the budget of the EU (75% in the poorest regions of the EU under the "convergence" objective). The member states will be called upon to develop a national strategy for the distribution of fruit and vegetables to children, working together with the industry and the national public health and education services.
The Commission also proposes to allocate €1.3 million to promote the exchange of information between those taking part in these programmes and to raise public interest. The Commission points out that Community funding of €6 million has already been earmarked, in the regulation on the new common market organisation (CMO) for fruit and vegetables, for initiatives to promote the consumption of fruit and vegetables.
According to the impact analysis to accompany the proposal, the fruit and vegetable distribution programme will benefit just over 26 million children, aged between six and 10 years old, throughout the European Union (including nearly 4 million young Germans, 3.8 million French schoolchildren, and 3.6 million British children). The cost of the programme has been put at €0.20 per day per child. According to a recent study carried out by DG Research, only 17% of all children achieve the level of consumption of 400g of fruit and vegetables a day as recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO). (L.C./transl. fl)