Brussels, 18/11/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 18 November in Strasbourg, the European Parliament voted in favour of an ambitious programme to distribute fruit and vegetables in schools. European agriculture ministers are expected to reach a political agreement on the dossier on Wednesday 19 November in Brussels, and they will not be as generous as the EP.
With the adoption of the consultative report by Niels Busk (ALDE, Denmark) on this programme by a large majority (586 votes to 47 and 41 abstentions), the EP has introduced considerable changes to the European Commission's initial proposal in order to: - increase the amount of the Community contribution for such action during the school year 2009/2010 from €90 to 500 million; - clarify arrangements for the programme (fruit and vegetables provided for children must be of Community origin, the products must comply with the most demanding quality criteria and preferably be seasonal and of local origin). The only change compared to the position defended by the EP agriculture committee is that the amendment aiming to include only fresh products in the programme was rejected by plenary. MEPs hope, moreover, that fruit distributed will be accompanied by health and dietary advice in an appropriate style for children, as well as information on organic foodstuffs.
As Mr Busk, the rapporteur, and Michel Barnier, the French agriculture minister, pointed out during the debate, one child out of five in Europe is overweight and runs the risk of becoming obese. Infantile obesity is increasing by 2% each year on our continent! The Commission has suggested a budget of €90 million for the school year 2009/2010. Parliament considers this budget, which is the equivalent of giving one fruit per week to children aged 6 to 10 during 30 weeks, is totally inadequate. The Council should endorse a programme with €90 million, with a little more funding for the southern part of Europe. For mainly financial reasons, “I am not in favour of raising the budget to €500 million, as suggested in Mr Busk's report”, stressed Mariann Fischer Boel, Agriculture Commissioner. (L.C./transl.jl)