EU marketing standards for agri-food products have been “effective in establishing a standardised and satisfactory quality while also being useful for stakeholders” according to the key findings of a report by the European Commission.
The report, ‘Evaluation of marketing standards’, aimed to determine if EU marketing standards currently in place are fulfilling their objectives and if they are “useful and sufficient for stakeholders”, such as: producers; processors; traders; retailers; consumers; and member states’ administrations.
These EU marketing standards aim to establish a standardised and satisfactory quality for agri-food, by setting out technical definitions, classification, presentation, marking and labelling, packaging, production method and more.
The evaluation concluded that the majority of stakeholders that were consulted deemed that the costs of implementing EU marketing standards are “justifiable and proportionate to the benefits achieved”.
It was also highlighted that there is “room for improvement” in terms of addressing new needs.
Finally, the evaluation found that EU marketing standards were coherent with the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), as well as with other EU relevant rules.
Irish Rural Link CEO appointed president of EESC Diversity Europe Group
Meanwhile, in other European news, with the start of the 2020 to 2025 term of office of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), Séamus Boland, CEO of Irish Rural Link, will take over the presidency of its Diversity Europe Group.
Members confirmed his new role for the next two and a half years during the first group meeting of the new term held today (Tuesday, October 27).
He is the first Irish person to be elected to this position since its foundation in 1956, as one of the EU’s institutions listed in the Treaty of Rome.
Boland has been a member of the EESC since October 2011 and is a former vice-president of the Diversity Europe Group.