The European Commission, as part of the review of the programme for the promotion of agricultural and food products under the Farm to Fork Strategy, has launched a public consultation open to all citizens of the Union, which will be active until 23 June 2021.The aim is to gather views on how to implement the EU’s agri-food promotion policy with a view to the wider reform of the Common Agricultural Policy and, more generally, to support the transition to more sustainable food systems.
The policy of promoting agricultural and food products helps farmers and the food sector to better place their products on the world market.The results of an independent evaluation published in 2020 also showed that this promotion policy was determined to raise awareness of the high-quality standards of products and quality schemes (DOC, PDO, PGI) both within the EU and in the main export markets.
According to the EU Farmto Fork Strategy, in detail, ensuring clear information for consumers that makes it easier for them to choose healthy and sustainable food regimes will benefit their health and quality of life and reduce health costs.
«To empower consumers to make informed, healthy and sustainable food choices, the Commission will propose harmonised mandatory front-of-pack nutrition labelling and will consider to propose the extension of mandatory origin or provenance indications to certain products, while fully taking into account impacts on the single market. The Commission will also examine ways to harmonise voluntary green claims and to create a sustainable labelling framework that covers, in synergy with other relevant initiatives, the nutritional, climate, environmental and social aspects of food products. The Commission will also explore new ways to provide information to consumers through other means including digital, to improve the accessibility of food information in particular for visually impaired persons».
The public consultation, which can be accessed directly via the link https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/12782-EU-farm-and-food-products-review-of-policy-on-promotion-inside-and-outside-the-EU
will gather the views of all citizens and organisations.Contributions are particularly requested by organisations representing the agricultural sector, producer organisations;food processing organisations;consumer organisations;trade promotion organisations, European federations, national organisations, chambers of commerce and private companies;organisations in the retail sector;public authorities and policy-makers dealing with agri-food promotion, the environment, public health and animal welfare organisations, non-EU countries;think tank, research institutes and universities;individuals and many others.
The final proposal, which will consider the results of the public consultation, will be adopted in 2022.
References
EU agri-food promotion policy increases awareness of high standards of EU agri-food products (https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/food-farming-fisheries/key_policies/documents/swd-eval-support-study-promotion-policy_en.pdf)
EU Farm to Fork Strategy (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/IT/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52020DC0381&from=EN)
