EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 78/561

(2004/C 78 E/0596)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3479/03

by Christine De Veyrac (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(24 November 2003)

Subject: Transposition of Directive 2002/46/EC seeking to harmonise Member State legislation on food supplements

In July 2002, the European institutions adopted a directive seeking to harmonise Member State legislation on food supplements (2002/46/EC (1)).

This directive has made the food supplements sector ‘readable’ again, clarifying the boundary between food and medicine, and making food supplements both safer and more trustworthy. Furthermore, the Directive is doing specific rules for defining products, their contents, dosages and usage for vitamins and minerals, and imposes the same rules on the consumer information throughout Europe. However, it leaves it up to the Member State to regulate the issue of the use of plants in food supplements.

This text was to be transposed into national law on 31 July 2003, which is not yet the case in all Member States.

Can the Commission provide:

— the list of those Member States which have in fact transposed the directive before the deadline, and the list of those which did not;

— a list of those Member States which transposed the Directive to the letter, and the list of those which chose to go further, by incorporating aspects not harmonised by the Directive?

Furthermore, does the Commission believe that the principle of the freedom of movement provided for in the Treaty of Accession can be applied to those aspects not harmonised by the Directive, and not dealt with in the transposition process?

Does the Commission intend to take fresh initiatives on those aspects not harmonised by Directive 2002/46/EC so as to encourage greater harmonisation of European legislation on food supplements?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(20 January 2004)

The current situation regarding Member States' transposal of Directive 2002/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 June 2002 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to food supplements is as follows:

— five Member States transposed Directive 2002/46/EC within the time allowed: Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden;

— on 6 October 2003 the Commission sent a letter of formal notice to the other ten Member States for not having given notification of their national measures for transposing the Directive;

— since then, Spain, Ireland and the United Kingdom have notified us of their national measures;

— seven Member States are currently behind schedule in transposing the Directive: Germany, Greece, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Austria and Finland (the delay in transposal concerns only the autonomous province of the Åland Islands);

— in light of the above, it is not possible to provide a meaningful description of the different ways in which the various countries have transposed the Directive;

— with regard to the areas or products for which this Directive does not provide harmonisation measures, movement of these goods in the single market remains subject to the general provisions of Community law and in particular to those relating to the free movement of goods (Articles 28 and 30 of the EC Treaty). These provisions will of course apply in the accession countries as of the date of accession;

— based on the implementing powers conferred on it by Article 5(4) of the Directive, the Commission will set the maximum amounts of vitamins and minerals in food supplements. This exercise is to take into account the work currently being done by the European Food Safety Authority on maximum safe levels of vitamins and minerals, which should be completed in the course of 2005;

— under Article 4(8) of the Directive, the Commission must submit to the European Parliament and the Council, not later than 12 July 2007, a report on the advisability of establishing specific rules concerning categories of nutrients or of substances with a nutritional or physiological effect, other than vitamins and minerals. The Commission has not yet begun this work.

(1) OJ L 183, 12.7.2002, p. 51.