MAGAZINE - Copa-Cogeca
MAGAZINE - Copa-Cogeca
MAGAZINE - Copa-Cogeca
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April 2012 │ 5<br />
Christian Jochum, Chairman of <strong>Copa</strong>-<strong>Cogeca</strong> Working Party on<br />
Promotion Policy broadly welcomed new EU Commission plans<br />
on future EU promotion policy of agricultural products, saying<br />
they include many of our demands, especially the urgent need for<br />
simplification of administrative procedures. But he highlighted<br />
the need for a good budget to fund an ambitious EU promotion<br />
policy.<br />
position is to make it possible to promote the origin of a product<br />
when it is not covered by EU legislation on quality policy and<br />
when it is a secondary message and Mr Jochum welcomed the<br />
fact that this has been included in the plans. Mr Jochum was also<br />
pleased to see that our demands on policy for branding and the<br />
need for it to be relaxed slightly to enable pragmatic solutions<br />
to be found in co-financed EU programmes are also included in<br />
plans. But Mr Jochum insisted that there must be a big boost in<br />
EU funds allocated to this policy as many of the problems in the<br />
past have been to a lack of funds.<br />
EU Agriculture Ministers have also adopted EU Council<br />
conclusions on the future of EU agriculture promotion policy,<br />
stressing that the EU needs a more ambitious promotion policy<br />
which <strong>Copa</strong>-<strong>Cogeca</strong> welcomes.<br />
<strong>Copa</strong>-<strong>Cogeca</strong> organised a Seminar “The Reform of European<br />
Promotion Policy for Agricultural Products: Moving towards a<br />
new EU promotion Policy for Agricultural Products” with the<br />
support of the EU food industry organisations FoodDrink Europe<br />
and Celcaa, in Brussels in March to debate the reform. It gathered<br />
together over 100<br />
stakeholders, leading<br />
politicians and experts<br />
to exchange ideas.<br />
Participants concluded<br />
that an ambitious<br />
promotion policy is<br />
needed, with a more<br />
targeted, strategic<br />
approach. Mr Jochum<br />
welcomed the debate, stressing it provided a good marketplace to<br />
exchange ideas early on in the legislative process.<br />
Chairman of <strong>Copa</strong>-<strong>Cogeca</strong> working party<br />
on promotion policy Mr Jochum Broadly<br />
welcomes new EU commission plans on<br />
future promotion policy and highlights need<br />
for good budget<br />
The move came as the<br />
Commission released its<br />
Communication, with<br />
legislative proposals<br />
expected at the end of the<br />
year. The Communication<br />
includes measures to<br />
simply administrative<br />
procedures – a key<br />
demand of <strong>Copa</strong>-<strong>Cogeca</strong> - as a big problem with the policy up<br />
to now has been down to the very complicated administrative<br />
procedures which has reduced the uptake of it. Although Mr<br />
Jochum welcomed the move, he insisted that we will now have to<br />
see the details of it and if it can work in practice as often things<br />
just end up becoming more complicated. Labelling rules also<br />
need to be simplified and made understandable for consumers at<br />
the same time as meeting EU consumer expectations, he said.<br />
In addition, the Communication highlights the need to tap into<br />
new export markets, such as India. <strong>Copa</strong>-<strong>Cogeca</strong> believes that<br />
its important to promote products on new emerging economy<br />
markets, such as India, where demand for meat is expected to<br />
grow substantially. But Mr Jochum stressed that the priority must<br />
still to be to target EU funds at promotion measures destined for<br />
the internal market as 85% of EU produce is sold on the domestic<br />
market. <strong>Copa</strong>-<strong>Cogeca</strong> is calling for promotional measures to<br />
be stepped up on both domestic and external markets. He also<br />
welcomed the Commission move to increase recognition of EU<br />
quality standards. Activities targeted at the internal market that<br />
focus on the EU’s unique selling points such as high quality<br />
produce are suggested. Another key point of <strong>Copa</strong>-<strong>Cogeca</strong>s’