EC puts money into promotion of EU food products

The plan covers 25 programmes in 14 Member States that are designed to provide information on and promote agricultural products within the European Union. The total budget of the programmes is €51 million, of which the EU will contribute half.

Europe's food and drink sector has felt in danger of losing its competitiveness for some time. The Confederation of Food and Drink Industries in the EU (CIAA) has voiced the opinion in recent months that the industry needs more help from the European Commission if it is to face the increasing competition from Asia, South America and the US.

As a result the promotion of EU food products will likely be welcomed by the food industry, though criticism over European bureaucracy remains a recurrent theme.

Under a Council Regulation on information and promotion actions for agricultural products on the EU internal market, 14 Member States submitted 40 programme proposals. The Commission selected 25 programmes in those Member States (Belgium, Germany, Greece and Cyprus, Spain, France, Italy, Hungary, Austria, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Finland and the United Kingdom) as eligible to receive financing.

The programmes cover organic products, agricultural quality products (PDO, PGI, TSG), oils, milk, cheese, meat, wine, fruit and vegetables, flowers and potatoes.

The approved programmes are the second series for the year 2005. A first series was approved in June 2005. The EU budget available in 2005 for promotion programmes for agricultural products in the European Union was € 48.5 million.

This latest announcement goes back to 19 December 2000,when the Council decided that the EU could assist in financing measures that provide information on, or promote agricultural products and food on the EU internal market.

These measures can consist of public relations, promotional or publicity actions, in particular highlighting the advantages of EU products, especially in terms of quality, hygiene, food safety, nutrition, labelling, animal welfare or environment-friendliness of their production.

The measures can also cover participation at events and fairs, information campaigns on the EU system of protected designations of origin (PDO), protected geographical indications (PGI) and traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG), information on EU quality and labelling systems and organic farming, Information campaigns on the EU system of quality wines produced in specified regions (QWPSR) are also amongst the possibilities.

The EU finances 50 per cent of the cost of these measures, the remainder being met by the professional/inter-branch organisations which proposed them and/or by the Member States concerned.The EU food and drink industry sector is the largest manufacturing sector in the 25-member bloc, with a turnover value of around €800bn in 2003 and employs four million people. The sector purchases and processes 70 per cent of the EU's agricultural production. Exports of food and drink products add up to €45bn a year.