EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 88/609

(2004/C 88 E/0629)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1117/03

by Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(1 April 2003)

Subject: Labelling of foodstuffs after enlargement

The enlargement of the EU will be taking place in the very near future. After enlargement the EU will have 19 official languages and a variety of alphabets. This may lead to significant problems with the labelling of foodstuffs. Product labels will become over-crowded with information and hard to read, and there will be a clear lack of uniformity of data on such labels.

It therefore seems appropriate to complement the indications already compulsory under European regulations with a set of clearly recognisable symbols (pictograms) to indicate product qualities such as: suitable for diabetics, vegetarian, organic, low-fat, produce of the craft trade, local speciality, genetically modified, not tested on animals, etc.

Can the Commission state whether it proposes to draw up this type of extensive list of pictograms and to make its use compulsory in the labelling of products? If not, how does it plan to deal with the problem of the potential over-crowding of information on product labels?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(8 May 2003)

First of all, the Commission would like to stress that multilingual labelling is usually the result of food manufacturers' decisions rather than the applicable legislation, Directive 2000/13/EC (1), which states essentially that the labelling information must appear in a language easily understood by the consumer, and that, within its own territory, the Member State in which the product is marketed may stipulate that those labelling particulars shall be given in one or more languages which it shall determine from among the official languages of the Community. In most Member States, just one language is stipulated.

These provisions do not preclude the particulars from being indicated in several languages, as long as they are easy to understand and marked in a conspicuous place in such a way as to be easily visible, clearly legible and indelible, as set out in the Directive.

These principles will of course continue to apply after the forthcoming enlargement.

However, the Commission shares the Honourable Member's view that excessive multilingual labelling could affect the clarity and legibility of the information on the label, especially in the case of small packaging. Certain questionable practices unrelated to the forthcoming enlargement can already be observed.

More generally, the Commission takes the view that the Community legislation on labelling food products should be adapted, inter alia to ensure the clarity and legibility of information. In view of this, an evaluation of the legislation has recently begun, in order to identify the elements that should be adapted, and to serve as a basis for the preparation of proposals. This evaluation will be finished by the end of 2003.

In this context, the idea of symbols or pictograms could be considered.

(1) Directive 2000/13/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 March 2000 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs, OJ L 109, 6.5.2000.