EU Commission inception impact assessment to help make the food chain work better

With farmers getting only 8% of the price of a loaf of bread, for example, Copa and Cogeca believe that it is vital for legislation to be swiftly introduced into the food chain to improve farmers' positioning and to tackle unfair trading practices (UTPs). “It is clear that voluntary initiatives don’t work. They failed to bring the necessary change in retailers behavior. We need legislation at EU level with independent enforcement by an authority to combat unfair practices and to apply significant sanctions to those that break EU law”, Copa and Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen said.
 
EU Commissioner Phil Hogan has announced the timetable for legislation on UTPs , saying that an impact assessment will be carried out, followed by a public consultation and proposals in Spring 2018.  Stakeholders now have four weeks to respond to the inception impact assessment which sets out a series of objectives and policy options, notably in relation to UTPs, producer cooperation and market transparency. The feedback period runs from July 25 – August 22.  For further details, see: https://ec.europa.eu/info/news/inception-impact-assessment-food-supply-chain-published_en