Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Approximation of laws – Foods – Regulation No 2065/2003 – Smoke flavourings – Legal basis – Article 95 EC – Measures for approximation – Discretion – Matter requiring evaluations relating to the safety of foods – Need to ensure, in the choice of harmonisation technique, a high level of protection of human health

(Art. 95 EC; European Parliament and Council Regulation No 2065/2003)

2. Approximation of laws – Foods – Regulation No 2065/2003 – Smoke flavourings – Legal basis – Article 95 EC – Harmonisation in several stages – Drawing up of a list of products authorised throughout the Community – Conditions

(Art. 95 EC; European Parliament and Council Regulation No 2065/2003)

Summary

1. By the expression ‘measures for the approximation’ in Article 95 EC the authors of the Treaty intended to confer on the Community legislature a discretion, depending on the general context and the specific circumstances of the matter to be harmonised, as regards the harmonisation technique most appropriate for achieving the desired result, in particular in fields which are characterised by complex technical features.

That discretion may be used in particular to choose the most appropriate harmonisation technique where the proposed approximation requires physical, chemical or biological analyses to be made and scientific developments in the field concerned to be taken into account. Such evaluations relating to the safety of products correspond to the objective imposed on the Community legislature by Article 95(3) EC of ensuring a high level of protection of health.

Consequently, Regulation No 2065/2003 on smoke flavourings used or intended for use in or on foods constitutes an appropriate harmonising measure, in that the matter harmonised requires such evaluations relating to the safety of products.

(see paras 45-46, 52)

2. Where the Community legislature provides for a harmonisation which comprises several stages, in particular where the harmonisation consists in drawing up a list of products authorised throughout the Community to the exclusion of all other products, two conditions must be satisfied. First, the legislature must determine in the basic act the essential elements of the harmonising measure in question. Second, the mechanism for implementing those elements must be designed in such a way that it leads to a harmonisation within the meaning of Article 95 EC. That is the case where the Community legislature establishes the detailed rules for making decisions at each stage of such an authorisation procedure, and determines and circumscribes precisely the powers of the Commission as the body which has to take the final decision.

Regulation No 2065/2003 on smoke flavourings used or intended for use in or on foods satisfies those two conditions, and may therefore be regarded as a harmonising measure within the meaning of Article 95 EC. It does not have the incidental effect of harmonising the conditions of the internal market, but is intended to approximate the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States in the field of smoke flavourings.

(see paras 47-49, 58-59, 64)