Country-of-origin labelling

5.12.2012

Question for written answer E-011111-12
to the Commission
Rule 117
Paolo De Castro (S&D) , Sergio Paolo Francesco Silvestris (PPE) , Giancarlo Scottà (EFD) , Giovanni La Via (PPE) , Salvatore Caronna (S&D) , Carlo Fidanza (PPE) , Paolo Bartolozzi (PPE)

Article 26(2)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and the Council of 25 October 2011 made indication of the country of origin or place of provenance mandatory for meat falling within the Combined Nomenclature (‘CN’) codes listed in Annex XI to the regulation.

By 13 December 2013, following impact assessments, the Commission has to adopt implementing acts concerning the application of the abovementioned Article 26(2)(b).

Article 26 also stipulates that, by 13 December 2014, the Commission has to submit reports to the European Parliament and the Council regarding the mandatory indication of the country of origin or place of provenance for other food, including meat not referred in the abovementioned Annex XI to the regulation, unprocessed foods and single ingredient products;

European consumers are increasingly keen to have greater labelling transparency and a number of Member States (including Italy) are adopting stricter legislation than the European rules so as to ensure their consumers have detailed information on the provenance and origin of the food that they eat.

Could the Commission please reply to the following questions:

• 1.What is the state of progress of work on the impact assessments required for the adoption of the legislation needed to implement the mandatory indication of the country of origin or the place of provenance for the meat listed in Annex XI to the abovementioned Regulation?
• 2.In order for the mandatory indication of the country of origin or the place of provenance to become operational as soon as possible also for the other food listed in paragraph 5, when does the Commission intend to submit the reports referred to in Article 26 to the European Parliament and the Council?
• 3.Does the Commission consider that the mandatory labelling indicating the country of origin for all agricultural products could reduce unfair competition on the EU market and the number of consumers who are misled by text and graphics on product labels that mendaciously claim a specific geographic provenance or origin?

OJ C 339 E, 20/11/2013