The Council noted the progress report from the Permanent Representatives Committee and the comments from Commissioner BYRNE on the state of play of discussions on the proposals on food hygiene.
The discussions up to now have identified a certain number of key political issues and clarified several of the technical provisions contained in the proposal. Continued discussions should enable a future Presidency to make suggestions with a view to narrowing differences between delegations' positions.
The Council instructed the Permanent Representatives Committee to continue the work on the dossier.