In the letter to various vice-presidents and commissioners, the two groups stressed that a “robust Single Market is a key instrument for both the overall health and stability of the European Union, and for the implementation of the Green Deal and the ‘Farm to Fork Strategy’”.
The letter has been sent following the announcement of the Green Deal which commits to climate neutrality in the EU by 2050.
It went on to say that they regret the “overlapping of a variety of National and EU rules on origin labelling starting from the 1st of April 2020 for meat and milk”, and that the growing number of different and over-simplistic Front-of-Pack (FoP) nutrition labelling schemes are evidences of the lack of maintenance of the Single Market for food and they have triggered its fundamental fragmentation.
It was warned that these two sets of rules are creating a barrier to the Single Market as well as legal uncertainty for operators that don’t know which set of rules to adhere to.
"There is a growing feeling of frustration, just in a time when the European Institutions are asking significant additional efforts to support the EU Green Deal ambitions.
"The ambitious objective to transform Europe into the first climate neutral continent by 2050 will require an impressive effort from the food sector and our sectors will need the full support of the European Union to fully play our role.
“Today - in this very context –, we regret to be in a position to have to remind the European institutions, including the European Commission as guardian of the treaties, of their task to protect our Internal Market.
“In a context of uncertainty, it is very, very difficult to fully engage in new obligations.
CLITRAVI and EDA welcome and support the Green Deal including its sustainability challenges but ask the European Commission for a very basic guarantee: protect our Single Market and stop the fragmentation of the internal market and the distortions of competition caused by re-nationalisation of parts of the European food law.”