WRITTEN QUESTION E-0251/04 by Roberta Angelilli (UEN) to the Commission. Labelling of bread.
Date: 2004-02-03
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: bakery, bread, fresh product, labelling, quality standard

3.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 84 E/183

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(4 March 2004)

According to the information given by the Honourable Member, the Commission is unable to give an
opinion on this particular case since:

(cid:1) The rule seems to be applied to all categories of referees and it is necessary to know whether it is a
genuine sport rule. This economic impact is indeed required to justify the applicability of Community
rules (1);

(cid:1) There is no evidence about the possible arguments used by sports organizations to justify the

establishment of such an age limit.

framework for equal

The Commission can therefore only recall that Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000
in employment and occupation (2) prohibits
establishing a general
treatment
discrimination in employment on grounds of, ‘inter alia’, age and must be transposed into national law
by 2 December 2003. In addition, Member States may, if necessary, have an additional period of three
years from 2 December 2003 to implement
the Directive on age and disability
discrimination. Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom have informed the
Commission that
Italy has
transposed Directive 2000/78/EC by Decree No 216 of 13 August 2003, which entered into force on
28 August 2003. As Italy has transposed the Directive, individual complaints of discrimination should be
made under the national law before the national courts.

they will use this additional three years, and Denmark one extra year.

the provisions of

the Commission recalls that Article 6 of

the Directive allows for the justification of
Furthermore,
differences of treatment on the grounds of age in certain circumstances, as long as this is objectively
justified by a legitimate aim, and the means of achieving that aim are proportionate and necessary. The use
of fixed age limits could only be used where they were objectively and reasonably justified by a legitimate
aim.

Joint cases ‘Deliège’ C-51/96 and C-191/97.

(1)
(2) OJ L 303, 2.12.2000.

(2004/C 84 E/0223)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0251/04

by Roberta Angelilli (UEN) to the Commission

(3 February 2004)

Subject: Labelling of bread

Recently, Italian bakers joined forces in a campaign to save their profession. They have drafted a proposal
for a law to regulate the use of the term ‘fresh bread’, to ensure that it is applied only to bread made by
traditional methods and sold on the day it is made. Consequently, only undertakings which are responsible
for the whole production process from beginning to end will be able to call themselves ‘bakeries’, and will
be able to label their bread as ‘fresh bread’. The problem that Italian bakers (cid:1) and European bakers in
general (cid:1) have had to cope with for many years now is competition from bread sold in supermarkets. In
most cases, supermarket bread is a product which is partially baked in the factory, frozen and transported
to the place of sale, where it is placed in electric ovens to give it a similar colour, appearance and taste to
freshly baked bread. By this means, the supermarkets manage to be extremely competitive on the market
by reducing production costs. Bakers practising their profession in the traditional way are obliged (cid:1) by the
very nature of the product (cid:1) to work at night, and consequently to pay their employees a higher rate,
which greatly increases the cost of fresh bread. Consequently, consumers (cid:1) as shown by recent surveys (cid:1)
are increasingly likely, on economic grounds, to buy their bread in supermarkets. Often, however,
consumers base their decision to do so on a mistaken assumption, which is that the product they are
buying is the same as, rather than similar to, the product offered by traditional bakeries.

C 84 E/184

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

3.4.2004

In view of the foregoing,

1. Would the Commission state whether it is possible to adopt at European level a label certifying the

quality and freshness of bread?

2. What are the Commission’s views on this subject?

3. What, in the Commission’s opinion, are the most effective measures that could be taken to help save
traditional bakers’ occupational category, in view of the fact that last year, for example, two thousand
bakeries had to close in Germany and, in the south of France, bread is sold almost exclusively in
supermarkets?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(27 February 2004)

The range of bakery products available in the EU is enormous, reflecting the multitude of regional and
local customs and traditions.

Moreover, as the Honourable Member rightly states, these products are usually produced in whole or in
part at their place of sale and are therefore not exported to other Member States to any significant extent.

This means that legislation setting harmonised, EU-level quality standards for bakery products would be
difficult to achieve and would not meet a real need.

However, Member States, pursuant to the principle of subsidiarity, may decide to take measures of this
kind at national level, within the rules laid down by Articles 28 to 30 of the EC Treaty.

(2004/C 84 E/0224)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-0256/04

by María Valenciano Martínez-Orozco (PSE) to the Commission

(29 January 2004)

Subject: Open call for proposals VP/2002/6 for the programme relating to the Community framework

strategy on gender equality (2001-2005)

Section 4 of the open call for proposals for the programme relating to the Community framework strategy
on gender equality, entitled ‘Who can submit a proposal?’, stipulates what kind of organisations may
present a proposal as a promoter and what kind may act as partners in a proposal.

The wording of section 4 suggests that NGOs wishing to participate as promoters must be in one of the
two following situations:

(cid:1) according to paragraph 1, the NGO must be ‘organised at European level’; in the absence of specific
European legislation governing associations, the only way for NGOs to demonstrate their ‘European
dimension’ is by having offices in three or more Member States;

(cid:1) according to paragraph 4, promoters must be a transnational network of organisations which are
‘legally established or equivalent’;
this requirement creates legal uncertainty since ‘transnational
networks’ as such do not figure in national or European law and therefore cannot be ‘legally
established or similar’.

Does the Commission not think that this restriction based on size and the accompanying uncertainty could
become a real obstacle to participation by NGOs and could even prevent women’s organisations from
becoming promoters of proposals?