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With every household spending on average about 20% of its disposable,income on food and drink, the sector is of vital importance to the European economy. The food and drink processing industries alone employ some 2.3 million people, and in 1996 consumption within the Community will reach about ECU 500,000 million.
The volume of Community legislation relating to foodstuffs has grown substantially, in particular as a result of the Internal market programme and the progressive implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy. Today the vast majority of national food legislation has been harmonized at Community level. Even in areas which have not been harmonized, the application of the general Treaty rules, in particular Articles 30-36, provides a basis for the free movement of foodstuffs.
The new approach of the Commission on scientific advice and control, as laid down in the Communication on Consumer Health and Food Safety, which has followed the decision on the separation of responsibilities for the management of scientific committees, and for control activities from the responsibilities of the legislative departments, is not considered in this Green Paper, as it is mainly concerned with the substantive rules of Community law applicable to the foodstuffs sector. The Commission, as described in the above-mentioned Communication, has taken measures to raise the performance of its control services and to strive for their excellence by ensuring their independence, transparency and effectiveness.
As a starting point for discussion, the Green Paper identifies six basic goals for Community food law:
In order to achieve these goals, it is necessary to ensure that our regulatory approach covers the whole food chain "from the stable to the table". This gives rise to two issues:
It is important to ensure that the existing legislation strikes the right balance between general provisions and more detailed prescriptive legislation, between the use of binding legislation and recourse to voluntary instruments and between horizontal approaches and specific rules applicable to particular categories of foodstuffs.
The application of the principles of subsidiarity and legislative simplification in this area have produced mixed results. One particular problem has been the difficulty of ensuring that the practical application of the subsidiarity principle does not result in the progressive dismantling of the internal market as a result of new national legislative initiatives. In addition, the scope of Community legislation may need to be extended to cover certain areas where the internal market does not appear to be functioning effectively.
Greater use of Regulations instead of Directives would increase the transparency of the legislation and avoid difficulties arising from delayed or incorrect transposition. The Directive, should however, remain the instrument of choice for framework legislation.
There are serious difficulties in adapting existing legislation to technical and scientific progress which would be reduced by the greater use of simplified procedures.
The existing definitions which are contained in a variety of legal instruments should be rationalised and completed by new definitions of foodstuffs and placing on the market.
In the field of hygiene, 11 vertical veterinary hygiene directives co-exist with a general directive on the hygiene of foodstuffs. The Commission has already begun work on the simplification of the vertical directives, but their relationship with the general directive must also be considered. Priority should be given to ensuring that there is a coherent and consistent body of Community hygiene rules. This can best be achieved by the generalised application of HACCP-type principles, and by limiting detailed prescriptive regulations to cases where they are considered essential. The desire for consistency must also be balanced by the need to maintain the necessary degree of flexibility in the design and implementation of food hygiene regulations in order to ensure a high level of protection without imposing an unnecessary burden on business.
In the field of quality, it does not appear that the differences of approach resulting from the different objectives of internal market and agricultural legislation give rise to problems of incoherence or inconsistency.
In the field of labelling, binding labelling rules should ensure I that consumers are provided with essential information about the foodstuff in a user-friendly manner. It is necessary to strike a balance which ensures that consumers receive all useful information, whilst avoiding unnecessarily detailed provisions. Manufacturers should remain free to provide additional information provided it is not misleading, although in some cases, legislation may be necessary to govern the provision of this additional information. In this context, the Green paper specifically invites comments on the approach followed in Community legislation to claims and nutritional labelling.
The importance of an independent source of advice which will command public respect is crucial. The independence and objectivity of scientific advice and scientific committees must be guaranteed at all levels. The Commission has taken steps to ensure central co-ordination of the number, scope, composition and activities of scientific committees so that a high level of competence and full consistency of its scientific advice is ensured and the necessary resources are provided. Every effort must be made to present scientific conclusions in a clear and cogent manner.
Scientific advice is of primary, but not exclusive, importance. Community legislation has on a number of occasions recognised that other factors, in particular consumer needs and concerns, must also be taken into consideration during the decision-making process.
The Community must have adequate means to take preventative action against serious and urgent public health risks. The Commission has a range of safeguard powers available, but it is important to verify that there are no gaps in the system. There may also be a need to improve communication to the public in the event of serious risks.
The Community has a variety of strategies available for the management and control of zoonoses (eradication, reduction, removal, treatment). The Commission invites comments on possible improvements to the arrangements for managing the risk of zoonoses.
The legislation should set out clearly the responsibilities of producers, processors, distributors and retailers to supply safe, wholesome food fit for human consumption, of specified quality and properly identified, as well as the responsibilities of the competent control authorities. It may be desirable to introduce general obligations on all economic operators to take all the steps necessary to ensure that only safe and wholesome food is placed on the market. Such obligations would be independent of consumer rights to redress in the framework of the Directive on liability for defective products.
The extension of the product liability directive to cover. primary agricultural production should improve the overall level of protection of consumers, but should not be considered as an alternative to appropriate product safety rules and effective official control systems.
Recent developments have highlighted consumer interest in food production methods. Community food legislation (Directive 79/112/EEC on the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs; Regulation (EC) no 374/97 on novel foods and novel food ingredients) does not require the labelling of production methods which do not have an impact on the food characteristics of the finished product. However, in certain cases, mandatory labelling schemes may be considered necessary, such as the recently adopted rules on the labelling of beef. Moreover, it may be necessary to consider an appropriate framework for voluntary labelling schemes designed to address this interest.
The primary role of the Community in the field of control is not to replace the Member States, but to verify that the necessary controls are being carried out in an effective and equivalent manner throughout the internal market. The legislation should provide for appropriate enforcement and control measures. Whilst aimed at achieving a high level of protection, control and enforcement measures should take into account the principle of proportionality and should also provide for the targeting of controls on activities presenting the greatest risk. Steps should be taken to reinforce administrative and scientific co-operation between Member States and with the Commission in order to ensure equivalence of enforcement throughout the Community and to ensure effective mechanisms to prevent the marketing of unsafe food and to trace the origins of, and factors contributing to, outbreaks of food-borne disease. The fifth Research Framework Programme also has a role to play in this respect. In order to reinforce consumer confidence, efforts have been made in the Communication on Consumer Health and Food Safety to improve the transparency of the control system at Community level, and the need for greater transparency at national level should also be considered.
The sanctions for infringement of Community internal market legislation should be equivalent to the sanctions set out in domestic legislation, effective, proportionate and dissuasive.
There are mechanisms for examining new draft national legislation, principally under Directive 83/189/EEC where it contains technical regulations; the Commission also ensures respect for the Community rules on foodstuffs by the investigation of complaints. The new procedure for mutual information on national measures derogating from the principle of free movement of goods is also expected to make an important contribution in this respect.
In non-harrnonized areas, the primary instrument for the management of the internal market remains the principle of mutual recognition, which requires that a Member State should allow to circulate freely in its territory goods produced or marketed in conformity with the rules, tests or standards found in another Member State which offer an equivalent level of protection to its own rules, tests or standards.
The legislation should be compatible with the international obligations of the Community, in particular those arising under the WTO agreements. Equally, the Community must work in close partnership with the Member States, producers and industry to ensure that our major trading partners are also respecting their obligations. The Community should be able to participate fully in international standardisation activities relating to the foodstuffs sector. Where possible, the Community should negotiate equivalence agreements or mutual recognition arrangements with major trading partners to ensure in all cases, a high level of protection of the consumer.