91999E1403

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1403/99

by Graham Watson (ELDR) to the Commission

(1 September 1999)

Subject: Labelling of food

1. Can the Commission clarify the logic which allows food produced in country A but packed in country B to be labelled as being of origin from country B?

2. Can the Commission indicate the schemes for the funding of agricultural products in which the UK does not participate?

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(14 October 1999)

The provisions relating to the labelling of foodstuffs, as enacted by Directive 79/0112/EEC of 18 December 1978 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs(1) as last amended by Directive 97/0004/EC(2), do not allow for the possibility suggested by the first question of the Honourable Member.

The Commission would be grateful if the Honourable Member would provide more specific information on the case to which he refers.

With regard to the second question posed by the Honourable Member concerning the Guarantee Section (Markets) of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF), these measures generally give beneficiaries the right, in certain conditions, to receive the sums indicated in the regulations governing the common agricultural policy (CAP). These regulations are applicable in each Member State and each Member State is obliged to apply them. On the other hand, for certain specific schemes financed by the EAGGF-Guarantee, application is optional. For example, the United Kingdom does not grant aid for the consumption of butter to persons receiving social assistance (Council Regulation (EEC) 2990/82 of 9 November 1982 on the sale of butter at reduced prices to persons receiving social assistance(3)), a scheme only applied in Ireland. Furthermore, since 1999, the United Kingdom does not distribute agricultural products to underprivileged persons in the Community (Council Regulation (EEC) 3730/87 of 10 December 1987 laying down the general rules for the supply of food from intervention stocks to designated organisations for distribution to the most deprived persons in the Community(4)).

A list of agricultural mechanisms for which the United Kingdom did not declare expenses in the course of the 1998 financial year is being sent directly to the Honourable Member and to the General Secretariat of the Parliament.

(1) OJ L 33, 8.2.1979.

(2) OJ L 43, 14.2.1997.

(3) OJ L 314, 10.11.1982.

(4) OJ L 352, 15.12.1987.