OPINION of the Economic and Social Committee on the Proposal for a Council Directive on the Circulation of Feed Materials amending Directives 70/524/EEC, 74/63/EEC, 80/511/EEC, 82/471/EEC, 82/475/EEC, 91/357/EEC, 91/516/EEC, 92/87/EEC and 93/74/EEC as well as repealing Directive 77/101/EEC
Date: 1995-01-25
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: animal feedingstuffs, health legislation, labelling













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51995AC0047

OPINION of the Economic and Social Committee on the Proposal for a Council Directive on the Circulation of Feed Materials amending Directives 70/524/EEC, 74/63/EEC, 80/511/EEC, 82/471/EEC, 82/475/EEC, 91/357/EEC, 91/516/EEC, 92/87/EEC and 93/74/EEC as well as repealing Directive 77/101/EEC  


Official Journal C 102 , 24/04/1995 P. 0010 





Opinion on the proposal for a Council Directive on the circulation of feed materials amending  Directives 70/524/EEC, 74/63/EEC, 80/511/EEC, 82/471/EEC, 82/475/EEC, 91/357/EEC, 91/516/EEC,  92/87/EEC and 93/74/EEC as well as repealing Directive  77/101/EEC(95/C 102/04)On 14   September 1994, the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under Articles 43  and 198 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the abovementioned proposal. The Section for Agriculture and Fisheries, which was responsible for preparing the Committee's work  on the subject, adopted its Opinion on 10  January 1995. The Rapporteur was Mr  Gardner. At its 322nd Plenary Session (meeting of 25  January 1995), the Economic and Social Committee  adopted the following Opinion by a unanimous vote. 1. General comments 1.1. There is at present considerable variation in the national  application of feedingstuff regulations and the Commission has put forward this proposal to remove  these discrepancies given the needs of the single market. The Committee fully approves this  desire. 1.2. However, instead of harmonizing to the minimum necessary level, this proposal tends towards  practice in countries with the greatest level of administrative load, thus leading to appreciable  administrative and cost increases in many other countries. 1.3. The Commission should therefore review the proposal overall given the need to reduce the load  of administrative costs throughout the EU and make the EU more competitive internationally. With  this proviso, the Committee accepts the proposal subject to the following detailed remarks and  changes. 2. Detailed comments 2.1. Article  52.1.1. This requires a large number of details to be given on the packages or documents.  The Committee completely agrees that the information must be available to the final user. 2.1.2. The proposal also wants these to be given at each stage of the selling chain. 2.1.3. The Committee feels that this is probably necessary to achieve the essential end result,  which is to provide all necessary information to the final user. 2.2. Article  6This raises several points: 2.2.1. The moisture level - this will be discussed in 3.1 below. 2.2.2. In (a), the words 'they may however be provided' should be changed to: 'they must be  provided on request'. 2.2.3. The provision in (d) for imports from third countries where provisional data can be given  where necessary, providing the full data are available within 6  days. In principle scientific  equipment now exists for supplying this information instantaneously. However such equipment is  expensive and delicate to operate. While apparently some Member States have such equipment in  general use, this is not the case in many other States. Where the equipment and expertise do not  exist, product has to be held in the ports until the final result is available. The Committee is not happy with the solution proposed by the Commission and would ask the  Commission, if at all possible, to seek an alternative solution to achieve the same objective in  regions where the facilities for rapid determination do not exist, for it is important for the  purchaser and final user to be in possession of these data. 2.3. Article  92.3.1. The Commission has taken the standard terminology for language of labelling that  is used in other texts, in particular the labelling directive (79/112/EEC). However this has given  rise to a good deal of difficulty including references to the Court of Justice. 2.3.2. For this proposal on animal feeds, the Committee therefore proposes the following wording:  'For the purpose of trade within the Community, the indications printed on the packaging, on the  container or on a label attached thereto shall be given both in the language of the manufacturer of  the feedingstuffs and in the language of the purchaser.'2.4. Article  11A code-numbering system would be very useful and the Commission should seek an  internationally agreed system, not one merely confined to the EU. 2.5. Article  14The Committee cannot endorse the proposal in this Article to use the Standing Committee  for Feedingstuffs in a purely advisory capacity. It asks the Commission to retain the SCF as a  regulatory committee. 2.6. Article  18Given the uncertainties of getting any directive through the procedure, all  implementation timings should be calculated from the actual finalization of the Directive. 3.1. Annex I - Part A - Point V3.1.1. This lays down a general level of 14,5% water above which the  moisture level must always be stated and of course scientifically determined. 3.1.2. The Committee disagrees with this. Some products such as skimmed milk powder deteriorate at  levels as low as 10%, while others which are high in short chain carbohydrates keep well above  14,5%. Also for grain, the moisture level varies with the ambient relative humidity. 3.1.3. Instead of this single figure, the appropriate moisture levels should be given for the  individual products in Part B of the Annex as appropriate. Done at Brussels, 25  January 1995. The Presidentof the Economic and Social CommitteeCarlos FERRER