A4-0278/98

Decision on the common position adopted by the Council with a view to adopting a European Parliament and Council Directive on coffee extracts and chicory extracts (C4-0306/98 - 96/0117(COD))(Codecision procedure: second reading)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the common position of the Council, C4-0306/98 - 96/0117(COD),

- having regard to its opinion at first reading ((OJ C 339, 10.11.1997, p. 128. )) on the Commission proposal to Parliament and the Council (COM(95)0722) ((OJ C 231, 9.8.1996, p. 24.)),

- having regard to Article 189b(2) of the EC Treaty,

- having regard to Rule 72 of its Rules of Procedure,

- having regard to the recommendation for second reading of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection (A4-0278/98),

1. Amends the common position as follows;

2. Calls on the Commission to support Parliament's amendments in the opinion it is required to deliver pursuant to Article 189b(2)(d) of the EC Treaty;

3. Calls on the Council to approve all Parliament's amendments, amend its common position accordingly and definitively adopt the act;

4. Instructs its President to forward this decision to the Council and the Commission.

(Amendment 1)

Recital 4a (new)

>Original text>

>Text following EP vote>

Whereas Council Directive 80/232/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the ranges of nominal quantities and nominal capacities permitted for certain prepackaged products(1) sought to reduce, for a given product, the number of quantities which are so close to each other that they may well mislead the consumer;

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(1) OJ L 51, 25.2.1980, p. 1.

(Amendment 2)

Article 2a (new)

>Original text>

>Text following EP vote>

Article 2a

The products in solid or paste form referred to in the Annex, where put up in individual packagings of a nominal weight greater than 25 grammes but not exceeding 10 kilogrammes, shall be offered for retail sale solely in packages of the following nominal weights: 50, 100, 200, 250 (only in the case of mixtures of coffee and chicory extracts and for coffee extracts intended exclusively for automatic vending machines), 300 (only in the case of coffee extracts), 500 and 750 grammes, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3 kilogrammes and in multiples of one kilogramme.

(Amendment 3)

Annex(1), 1st paragraph, definition

>Original text>

This means the concentrated product obtained by extraction from roasted coffee beans using only water as the medium of extraction and excluding any process of hydrolysis involving the addition of an acid or a base. Apart from those insoluble substances which it is technically impossible to remove, and insoluble oils derived from coffee, coffee extract must contain only the soluble and aromatic constituents of coffee.

>Text following EP vote>

This means the concentrated product obtained by extraction from roasted coffee beans using only water as the medium of extraction and excluding any process of hydrolysis involving the addition of an acid or a base. Apart from those insoluble substances which it is technically impossible to remove, and insoluble oils derived from coffee, coffee extract must contain only the soluble and aromatic constituents of coffee.

Standard ISO 11292 of February 1997 shall be applied for the determination of the free and total carbohydrate content of soluble coffees.