Last night a political agreement on the ‘Breakfast Directives’ was found between the Council and the European Parliament. It will ensure further traceability, quality, and transparency towards consumers for honey, fruit juices, jams, and dehydrated milk. Despite falling short of the European Parliament’s ambitious stance, the result is a much-need and long-awaited step forward.
A key claim carried out by Copa and Cogeca, concerning the indication of the origin of the honey on the label and its showcase in descending order of the exact percentage shares for each country of origin in honey blends, has passed. Although, Member States can decide to indicate the percentages only for the four largest shares, as long as they represent over 50% of the blend’s weight, this is still a major step forward towards increasing transparency in the EU honey market and in fighting fraud and adulteration.
Still, Copa and Cogeca deeply regret that the agreed actions on traceability and composition criteria are to be adopted by means of delegated acts in five years’ time! This institutional slowness contrasts with the urgency of the situation for beekeepers on the ground. The establishment of an expert group to advise and make recommendations to the European Commission on detecting honey adulteration and enhancing controls, is also a positive step forward.
Copa and Cogeca welcome the agreement to increase the minimum fruit content in jams and extra jams (to 450g and 500g respectively). While less ambitious than the Commission’s proposal, the increase in the fruit content will contribute to supporting the fruit sector and in helping consumers make healthy choices.
In addition, the agreement reached stipulates that, within 36 months, the European Commission will have to produce a report on country of origin labelling for fruits contained in juices and jams. We welcome the opportunity to properly explore origin labelling for fruits and the possibility that the report could lead to a legislative proposal on the matter.
We call on the co-legislators to swiftly adopt the provisional agreement with a view to better protecting EU producers and consumers.
Fonte: Copa Cogeca
