Proposal for a Council Regulation (EC) regarding the labelling of beef and beef products (96/C 349/10) COM(96) 460 final -

96/0229(CNS)

(Submitted by the Commission on 2 October 1996)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 43 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament,

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee,

Whereas in order to improve the information to consumers about consumer-relevant aspects of beef and beef products, a specific labelling system should be set up in the beef sector; whereas beef and beef products shall be taken to mean certain products referred to in Article 1 (1) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 805/68 of 27 June 1968 on the common organization of the market in beef and veal (1); whereas Member States may decide to extend the labelling system to other processed goods containing beef;

Whereas such a labelling system should be optional to operators and organizations marketing beef and beef products in the sense that operators and organizations wishing to label their beef and beef products shall do so in accordance with this Regulation;

Whereas the provisions of this Regulation should not undermine existing Community legislation in the fields of labelling and control of foodstuffs, protection of geographical indications and designations of origin, measures to promote and market quality beef and veal and rules governing health problems affecting intra-Community trade in meat and meat products;

Whereas an efficient labelling system depends on the possibility of tracing back any labelled beef or beef products to the animal or animals of origin; whereas the labelling arrangements of an operator or organization shall only be accepted once a specification has been submitted to and approved by the competent authority;

Whereas in order to identify properly the person responsible for the information indicated on the label, operators and organizations shall only be entitled to label beef and beef products provided that the label contains its name and logo; whereas it shall be specified what kind of information the label may contain;

Whereas operators and organizations importing beef and beef products from third countries into the Community may also wish to label their products according to this Regulation; whereas provisions should thus be made for imported beef to be included in the labelling system; whereas these provisions must ensure that labelling arrangements relating to imported beef and beef products be of equivalent reliability as those set up for Community beef;

Whereas with a view to guaranteeing the reliability of the labelling arrangements in place, it is necessary to oblige the Member States to carry out adequate and efficient control measures; whereas these controls shall be without prejudice to any controls which the Commission may carry out by analogy with Article 9 of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2988/95 of 18 December 1995 on the protection of the European Communities financial interests (1); whereas the competent authorities of the Member States shall be authorized to withdraw their approval of any specification in the event of irregularities,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

1. If an operator or an organization, as defined in Article 2, wishes to label beef or beef products in a detailed manner at the point of sale, it shall do so in accordance with this Regulation.

2. Notwithstanding paragraph 1, the following shall continue to apply:

- Council Regulation No 26 of 4 April 1962 applying certain rules of competition to production of and trade in agricultural products (2),

- Council Directive 64/433/EEC of 26 June 1964 on health condition for the production and marketing of fresh meat (3),

- Council Directive 77/99/EEC of 21 December 1976 on health problems affecting intra-Community trade in meat products (4),

- Council Directive 79/112/EEC of 18 December 1978 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs for sale to the ultimate consumer (5),

- Council Directive 93/99/EEC of 29 October 1992 on additional measures concerning the official control of foodstuffs (6),

- Council Directive 94/65/EEC of 14 December 1994 laying down the requirements for the production and placing on the market of minced meat and meat preparations (7),

- Council Regulation (EEC) No 1208/81 of 28 April 1981 determining the Community scale for the classification of carcases of adult bovine animals (8),

- Council Regulation (EEC) No 1186/90 of 7 May 1990 extending the scope of the Community scale for the classification of carcases of adult bovine animals (9),

- Council Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92 of 14 July 1992 on protection of geographical indications and designations of origin (10),

- Council Regulation (EEC) No 2082/92 of 14 July 1992 on certificates of specific character for agricultural products and foodstuffs (11),

- Council Regulation (EEC) No 2067/92 of 30 June 1992 on the measures to promote and market quality beef and veal (1).

Article 2

For the purposes of this Regulation the following definitions shall apply:

- 'beef and beef products` means the products referred to in Article 1 (1) of Regulation (EEC) No 805/68 other than CN codes 0102 90 05 to 0102 90 79 and 0102 10,

- 'label` means a label attached to an individual piece or pieces of meat or to their packaging material, or information provided to the consumer at the point of sale,

- 'organization` means a group of operators from the same or different parts of the beef trade.

Member States may decide to extend this system to processed goods containing products referred to in the first indent, including cosmetic and pharmaceutical products.

Article 3

1. Each operator or organization shall submit a specification for approval to the competent authority of each Member State in which production or sale of the beef or beef products in question takes place. Such specification shall indicate:

- the information to be included on the label,

- the measures to be taken to ensure the accuracy of this information,

- the control system which will be applied at all stages or production and sale, including controls to be carried out by an independent body to be nominated by the operator or the organization,

- in the case of an organization, the measures which would be taken in relation to any member which failed to comply with the specification.

2. The approval of any specification shall be subject to the assurance of the competent authority, obtained on the basis of a thorough examination of its components as referred to in paragraph 1, of the proper and reliable functioning of the labelling system envisaged and, in particular, of its control system. Any specification which does not ensure a link being made between identification of the carcase, quarter, pieces of meat and meat products and the individual animal, or in the case of pieces of meat and meat products the animals concerned, shall be refused.

3. Where the production and/or sale of beef or beef products takes place in two or more Member States, the competent authorities of the Member States concerned shall examine and approve the specifications submitted in so far as the elements contained therein relate to operations taking place within their respective territory. In this event, every Member State concerned shall recognize the approvals granted by any other Member State concerned.

4. Where the competent authorities of all the Member States concerned approve the specification submitted, the operator or organization concerned shall be entitled to label beef and beef products, provided that the label contains its name or logo.

Any entitlement shall apply without prejudice to the respect of Article 13 of Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92 and of Article 13 of Regulation (EEC) No 2082/92.

Article 4

1. Where, in full or in part, the production of beef or beef products takes place in a third country, operators and organizations shall only be entitled to label beef and beef products according to this Regulation, if, in addition to the observance of the requirements set out in Article 3, they have obtained approval of their specifications by the competent authority designated to this end by each third country concerned.

2. The validity within the Community of any approval granted by a third country shall be subject to prior notification by the third country to the Commission:

- of the competent authority which is designated,

- of the procedures and criteria to be followed by the competent authority when examining the specification,

- of each operator and organization to which the competent authority has granted approval of their specification.

The Commission shall transmit these notifications to the Member States.

Where, on the basis of the above notifications, the Commission arrives at the conclusion that the procedures and/or criteria applied in a third country are not equivalent to the standards set out in this Regulation, the Commission shall, after consultation with the third country concerned, decide that approvals granted by the third country concerned shall not be valid within the Community.

Article 5

1. A label shall not contain any information relating to the animal from which the beef or beef products originate other than that which appears in the following list:

- Member State, region of a Member State or third country of birth, the sex of the animal,

- method of fattening,

- other information in relation to feeding,

- Member States, regions of Member States or third countries where all, or at least 80 %, of the fattening took place,

- information on the slaughtering, like the Member State or region of a Member State or third country where slaughter took place, the age at slaughter and the date of slaughter or the period during which the beef was hung,

- information on methods of boning and cutting like mechanical recovery, types of meat and the content,

- any other information the operator or the organization wishes to indicate and agreed by the competent authority concerned.

2. Where beef and beef products contain meat from different animals is mixed, the label shall only contain information in accordance with paragraph 1 which is common to all such meat.

Article 6

Member States shall take all the necessary administrative and control measures to ensure compliance with the provisions of this Regulation. These measures shall be without prejudice to any controls which the Commission shall be authorized to carry out by analogy with Article 9 of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2988/95.

Article 7

Where it is shown that an operator or organization has failed to comply with the specification referred to in Article 3 (1), the Member State may withdraw its approval under Article 3 (3) or impose supplementary conditions to be respected in the case of maintenance of its approval.

Article 8

The Commission shall adopt detailed rules for the application of this Regulation in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 27 of Regulation (EEC) No 805/68. The detailed rules may cover, in particular, the information which may be contained on labels under Article 5.

Article 9

The Regulation shall enter into force on the day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

It shall apply from 1 January 1997.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

(1) OJ No L 148, 28. 6. 1968, p. 24. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1357/96 (OJ No L 175, 13. 7. 1996, p. 9).

(1) OJ No L 312, 23. 12. 1995, p. 1.

(2) OJ No 30, 20. 4. 1962, p. 993/62. Regulation as last amended by Regulation No 49 (OJ No 53, 1. 7. 1962, p. 1571/62).

(3) OJ No 121, 29. 7. 1964, p. 2012/64.

(4) OJ No L 26, 31. 1. 1977, p. 85.

(5) OJ No L 33, 8. 2. 1979, p. 1.

(6) OJ No L 290, 24. 11. 1993, p. 14.

(7) OJ No L 368, 31. 12. 1994, p. 10.

(8) OJ No L 123, 7. 5. 1981, p. 3.

(9) OJ No L 119, 11. 5. 1990, p. 32.

(10) OJ No L 208, 24. 7. 1992, p. 1.

(11) OJ No L 208, 24. 7. 1992, p. 9.

(1) OJ No L 215, 30. 7. 1992, p. 57.