On 21 November 2013 the Commission presented the legislative proposals for new information and promotion policy for agricultural and food products on the internal market and in the third countries. While the policy may support health-promoting products such as fruit and vegetables or organic produce, it is much about such products as processed agri-foods, wine and spirits, dairy or red meat.
With the slogan “Enjoy, it’s from Europe”, the aim of the policy is to develop, explore and open up new markets for European agricultural and food products on the internal market and in the third countries, and to increase consumer awareness of the efforts made by European farmers to provide quality products.
This new promotion policy, which benefits from a more substantial budget and will in the future be supported by a European executive agency, follows on from a wide-ranging debate, ongoing since 2011, on a Green Paper, which was followed by a Communication: Promoting the Tastes of Europe. EPHA (as part of the EPHAC’s activity) replied to the consultation on Commission’s proposal Promoting the Tastes of Europe where we expressed our concerns of promoting agricultural and food products of health-damaging value.
On 21 November 2013 the Commission presented the legislative proposals for new information and promotion policy for agricultural and food products on the internal market and in the third countries. While the policy may support health-promoting products such as fruit and vegetables or organic produce, it is much about such products as processed agri-foods, wine and spirits, dairy or red meat.
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THE MAIN ELEMENTS SET OUT IN THIS REFORM ARE
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- A significant increase in the aid allocated to information and promotion initiatives with the aim of strengthening the competitiveness of European agriculture. European aid should increase progressively from EUR 61 million in the 2013 budget to EUR 200 million in 2020;
- The establishment of a European promotion strategy, which will allow for promotion measures to be more targeted.
This strategy should lead to:
- An increase in the number of programmes aimed at third countries and multi-country programmes through a higher co-financing rate for these two categories: 60% of EU co-financing instead of 50% currently;
- On the internal market, overcoming consumers’ lack of awareness about the merits of European agricultural products in general and products endorsed by European quality systems in particular;
- A wider promotional scope – allowing labelling to specify the origin of products and their brands, within certain limits; – extending eligible beneficiaries to include producer organisations; – extending the range of products eligible for inclusion under European quality systems, particularly to processed agri-food products, such as, for example, pasta; – simplifying administrative procedures; – facilitating management of programmes developed jointly by organisations from several Member States via a one-stop system at the Commission.
The legislative proposals are accompanied by an impact assessment that evaluates alternative scenarios for the evolution of the policy.
The proposal will now be submitted to the European Parliament and to the Council.
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