Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-04-02-Speech-4-031"
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"en.20090402.6.4-031"2
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"Mr President, I would like at the outset to congratulate both rapporteurs, Ms McAvan and Mr Tatarella, on the EMAS and Ecolabel reports respectively. These deal with very important areas of eco-management and ecolabelling, the whole area of reduction of waste, reduction of water use and hopefully the reduction of food waste.
If I can be allowed to make particular mention of something which irritates me greatly: in the EU 30% of all food is actually wasted. So-called ‘best-before dates’ are often far too conservative, resulting in wanton waste through the discarding of otherwise perfectly edible products. This is part of labelling; let us sort it out and see where we are going on that.
I also have increased reservations that, in our rush to better inform consumers’ choice, we may in fact have the opposite effect from that intended by the Health Claims Directive, GM labelling, food information to consumers – that issue is yet to be resolved. And then there is the whole story surrounding ecolabelling. With everyone rushing for front-of-pack status – but even for the back – how will all this information, all worthy in its own right, be put on a product label in legible font and end up actually helping to inform the choice of Joe and Mary Citizen? I have my concerns.
If I may put on my hat as Vice-Chair of the Committee on Fisheries for the moment, I should like to put on the record what appear to be two parallel processes for the ecolabelling of fishery products. In 2005 the Commission adopted a communication to launch the debate on a Community approach regarding the ecolabelling programmes for fishery products. Following this, in 2006 the European Parliament adopted my colleague Carmen Fraga Estévez’s report, which urged the Commission to present a proposal for a Community ecolabelling system for fishing products. In 2008 the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries DG announced a proposal for a regulation for a Community ecolabel for fishery products, the adoption of which was foreseen for March 2009. This proposal is still in the pipeline though I now believe we are promised it before the end of the year.
In the mean time, the Environment DG sent the European Parliament a horizontal proposal on the Community Ecolabel scheme covering all products including fishing and aquaculture products, as well as processed agricultural products. Despite the written protests of the chairs of both the Committee on Fisheries and the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, these committees were not involved.
But I am pleased to acknowledge on the record today that only recently the Council, Parliament and the Commission have agreed on a declaration on the way forward, which states that, independently of the adoption of the Ecolabel Regulation, the Commission confirms it intends to propose a regulation on ecolabelling of fishery products before the end of the year. It continues that the study foreseen in Article 6(5)(a) of the Ecolabel regulation, dealing with additional aspects such as processing, pre-packaging, packaging and transport, which will examine the feasibility of the extension of the scope of the Ecolabel Regulation to food, including products of fishing and aquaculture, will not influence or pre-judge the adoption of this regulation. This declaration also clarifies that the Ecolabel will be complementary to the Specific Fishery Products Regulation."@en1
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