Minutes meeting 22/10/2008

Regulation on the provision of food information to consumers

Mrs Renate Sommer (EPP-ED, Germany) rapporteur
It is extremely strange to see that the European Commission adopted this proposal shortly before the European elections and without having done a scientific study on the topic. Moreover, the Commission should launch a scientific research in November that will probably last 2-3 years. This proposal is not suitable to reach all its targets, more specifically concerning the education of consumers in Member States. This aspect should be the starting point of a good labelling regulation. No need to label food if consumers are not well educated.
Regarding the adoption of the text in the EP, the first debate will take place in the ENVI Committee on 5 November; discussions on the amendments are foreseen for January 2009. The vote in the ENVI Committee should occur in February and the text should be adopted in plenary session in April 2009.
As far as the content of the proposal is concerned, the rapporteur is not convinced that nutritional logos, such as the traffic lights used in the UK for example, should be mandatory. If Member States want to use them they can, but it should not be imposed to all. What is mandatory is: the list of ingredients, the nutritional box, and the value of the product for 100 gr. But the Commission, the EP and the Council should keep in mind that they are working for the average consumer with a normal health. Therefore one should not push this legislation too far.
Regarding wine and spirits, the proposal excludes bier, alcoholic beverage and spirits. Nevertheless, mixed drinks containing alcohol are in the scope of the proposal. The Greens have a very strong position and want the alcoholic beverages to be labelled such as the other products. Therefore, the rapporteur of the text suggests to propose the labelling of energy content of alcoholic beverages in order to avoid a complete labelling of those products.

Mrs Astrid Lulling (EPP ED, Luxembourg) President of the Wine Intergroup:
Since the labelling of alcoholic beverages was regulated in the Wine CMO adopted by the Council of Ministers in December 2007, there is really no need to come back on that point. The position of the wine Intergroup is to avoid any new labelling requirements but also to make sure that there will not be any bad precedents on other products that could influence future debates on bier, wine and spirits labelling.

Mr Fabregat Mayol, CEEV member
The CEEV wants to stress the need to pay particular attention to the aromatised wines for which the situation is not clear in the proposal of the Commission.

Mrs Renate Sommer (EPP-ED, Germany) rapporteur of the text
Since the trends in the EP are in favour of a minimum of labelling on wine and spirits, one has to consider that there will probably be a majority of votes in favour of the energy labelling on bier, wine and spirits.

Integration of the Wine CMO in the Single CMO

Mr Johan Knoppers, Head of Sector, relation with the EP, DG AGRI, European Commission
The European Commission has decided to include the 21 texts of common market organisations in one single text, the Single CMO. This decision was clearly taken a long time ago and the legal text of the Single CMO mentioned that the Wine CMO will be included after its revision, achieved in December 2007. There will be no change in substance when including the Wine CMO in the single one. The main advantage of this inclusion is that on a number of horizontal points, the different sectors can benefit from the knowledge of each others. The experience so far shows that the sectors work smoothly with each others.
The single management committee works exactly as in the past; meetings are dedicated to one specific sector only.
However, the Commission is aware of the fears of the Member of the European Parliament and has agreed to take some initiatives in order to better explain the process:
- DG AGRI prepared a document explaining the necessity to integrate the Wine CMO in the Single CMO. (see attached document)
- DG AGRI met the MEPs in order to explain the text and agreed to intervene at the Wine Intergroup.
- DG AGRI will also prepare an unofficial version of the Single CMO with the Wine CMO already included, so that all stakeholders can see how the text will look like.


Mrs Christa Klass (EPP-ED, Germany)
This inclusion will lead to more bureaucracy and less transparency for the sector that will have to go trough the whole text to find back the articles concerning wines. Moreover, future revisions of the text will make it less clear on the impact or not on the wine sector.


Mrs Astrid Lulling (EPP ED, Luxembourg) President of the Wine Intergroup:
The advantages of putting all CMOs together are not clear. Moreover, the impact of future revisions of the text on the wine sector will be less easy to identify, MEPs and stakeholders will have to be very attentive. This topic should be discussed further in the AGRI Committee once the consolidated version of the text is released by the Commission.

Mr Johan Knoppers, Head of Sector, relation with the EP, DG Agri, European Commission
The consolidated version should allow large blocks of the wine CMO to be displayed together; it should not be difficult for people to find what they will be looking for.

The relevance of barrels in the ageing and maturation of wines

Mr Eric Nastorg, Managing Director Group Tonnellerie François Frères
Barrels production is a small business that has a worldwide turnover of 300 millions per year. This industry is based on the quality of its products and the know-how of the producers. The production of barrels requires oak trees aged of 250 years, coming from French forests.
Barrels are used in only 2% of the wine produced at world level but it concerns the best once all over the world. It is therefore striking to notice that the selling of barrels is growing by 8% in the southern hemisphere, by 5% in the United States and only by less than 1% in the EU. This trend reflects the fact that wine producers from the “new world” are improving the quality of their products and are focusing in high value added products, in direct competition with European products.