The European Commission is developing the Farm to fork (f2f, ‘farm to fork’) strategy as part of the Green New Deal. But it continues to neglect the needs for uniformity of rules in the internal market.
The confederations representing the meat and dairy industries in Europe, CLITRAVI and EDA, appeal to Ursula von der Leyen.
Free movement, a shattered pillar
The European alliance was founded and still is based on a first pillar, the free movement of goods among member states, which presupposes the abolition of tariff and non-tariff barriers. The latter take the form of any legislative, regulatory and administrative measures adopted at the national or local level that are capable of hindering the trade of commodities from one country to another.
The general principles of food law in the European Union, outlined in the European Commission’s Green Paper of 4/30/97, gave rise to an organic reform of the so-called European Food Law. (1) Under the banner of standardization of standards, channeled into a set of European regulations as such applied in their identical texts in all member countries. (2)
The first pillar falls apart, however, due to the uncontrolled proliferation of national standards that force food operators to face new burdens and uncertainties. As was the case in Italy, with the decrees – in blatant conflict with EU rules – on the location of the factory and the origin of pasta, rice and tomatoes. (3)
The appeal of the meat and dairy industries.
CLITRAVI (
Centre de Liaison des Industries Transformatrices de Viande
) and EDA (
European Diary Association
) – the confederations that express in Brussels the interests represented in Italy by Assica and Assolatte – appealed to the European Commission, by letter 4.3.20.
European industries in the processed meat, dairy and dairy products sectors are resisting the health and socio-environmental dumping imposed by the European Union through the CETA and EU-Mercosur treaties. Due to which huge quotas of products – made at costs and conditions far removed from European safety, animal welfare and sustainability requirements – are allowed to compete with ‘Made in EU‘ ones.
European animal husbandry, largely based on small farms and processing plants that are closely linked to territories, is also about to face the challenge of sustainable development. As is right and proper, to maintain a leading role on the path of progress. And yet it cannot afford to face additional-as well as unnecessary-costs and risks in pursuit of fragmentation of labeling rules. As is still the case on both sides of:
– indication of origin, where France, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Lithuania, Romania, Finland and Italy have adopted different national regulations. And instead, an initiative to adopt an EU regulation requiring the mandatory origin of all food products and the provenance of their primary ingredients, wherever made, when sold in Europe was signed by 1.1 million European citizens (#EatORIGINal! Unmask your food!),
– summary nutritional information, which in different countries still follow different patterns (including traffic-lights in England, albeit now non-EU, Scandinavian keyholes, the still-unknown Italian ‘battery’ and the Dutch healthy logo, which is being converted to the NutriScore). Waiting for the NutriScore to be recognized as a model to be applied throughout the EU, as requested by its citizens in special initiative.
The Stone Convitee
The stone guest, once again, is the European Commission. To which not only the writer but also
Food Drink Europe
– the Confederation of Confederations, which represents all the agri-food industries in the EU – has repeatedly urged the adoption of due acts of formal notice. Towards member states that indulge in issuing national technical standards that do not comply with EU law.
We renew our call to the European Commission, to bring legal certainty back to an internal market where those working to produce safe and sustainable food cannot afford to multiply and update labels every time products are destined for one country rather than another. With the risk of having to throw tons of packaging to the scrap heap and the added risk of incurring penalties ‘where the wind is blowing’. All the more so where one considers that more than 90 percent of food businesses in Europe are micro, small and medium-sized.
The European ombudsman-whom we also addressed, 22.1.20-is the penultimate resource. Before having to resort to the Court of Justice, to reaffirm the principles on which the Treaty for the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) is based. Without ever losing hope that Ursula von der Leyen will awaken the Stone Convitee.
The urgency of decisive action by the European Commission is made clear in press release 2.3.20 from Italian ministers Stefano Patuanelli and Teresa Bellanova. Who continue to claim ‘experimental application‘ of decrees on origin of ‘milk, cheese, processed meats, pasta, rice, tomato derivatives‘. (4) Neglecting the blatant illegality, most recently, of even the ministerial decree that extended its (in)temporal effectiveness.
In a civilized society, those responsible for wrongdoing would have already resigned. The social partners concerned, the press and academics would have denounced the unconstitutionality of the regulations. But the context, evidently, is different.
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) The general principles of food law in the European Union – Commission Green Paper, COM/97/0176 final. Italian text at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/IT/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A51997DC0176
(2) Thus.
General Food Law
(EC reg. 178/02), Hygiene Package (EC reg. 852, 853/04 et seq.), Pesticide Residue Regulation (EC reg. 396/05), and Food Information Regulation (EU reg. 1169/11), among others
(3) Legislative Decree. 145/17 (establishment location) and the ‘origin’ DMs (pasta, rice, and tomato), are still being illegally applied by some supervisory authorities, on the false reliance of measures by their top management that thus expose officials to the risk of being sued for abuse of office. V. https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/etichette/sede-dello-stabilimento-in-etichetta-controlli-a-rischio
(4) Mi.S.E. Labels, Patuanelli and Bellanova write to EU Commission. Press release 2.3.20, Labels, Patuanelli and Bellanova write to EU Commission
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
