COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT Accompanying the document REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL in accordance with Article 184(5) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 on the implementation of the European School Fruit Scheme
Date: 2012-12-18
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: child, eating habits, educational institution, fruit, health education, implementation of the budget, public awareness campaign, vegetable

EUROPEAN 
COMMISSION 

Brussels, 18.12.2012  
SWD(2012) 435 final 

COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT 
Accompanying the document 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

in accordance with Article 184(5) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 on the 
implementation of the European School Fruit Scheme 

{COM(2012) 768 final} 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 

COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT ................................................................. 3 

PROGRAMMING AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SCHEME....................................... 3 

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

Programming................................................................................................................ 3 

Implementation of the Scheme in Member States ....................................................... 3 

Budget implementation ................................................................................................ 5 

Activities under the Commission’s direct management and networking..................... 5 

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COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT 
Accompanying the document 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

in accordance with Article 184(5) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 on the 
implementation of the European School Fruit Scheme 

PROGRAMMING AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SCHEME 

The Scheme is implemented on the basis of rules laid down in Commission Regulation (EC) 
No 288/2009 to ensure proper financial management and control of expenditure. However, a 
great deal of flexibility is left to Member States to establish tailor-made programmes that fit 
local  and  cultural  needs,  but  which  nevertheless  must  meet  the  basic  requirements  with 
respect to accountability when using public money. 

1. 

PROGRAMMING  

When  establishing  the  Scheme,  the  indicative  total  budget  needs  were  calculated  at  €
 156 
million,  based  on  the  cost  of  €0.20  per  porti on  of  products  supplied,  the  purchase  and 
distribution of 30 portions of fruit and vegetables during the school year to the core group of 
 90 million per 
26 million children (aged 6-10 years). The maximum EU budget was set at €
school  year,  together  with  a  ceiling  on  the  EU  contribution  to  eligible  related  costs.  The 
allocation of the EU funding to Member States is calculated on the basis of objective criteria, 
based  on  the  number  of  children  aged  6-10  years,  with  a  minimum  level  of  funding  of 
 175 000 per Member State. 

For  the  first  year  of  implementation  2009/2010,  the  total  EU  and  Member  States  budget 
available for the Scheme reached €
 64 million of national funds added to 
 90  million.  For  the  second  year  2010/2011,  the  total  budget  accounts  for 
the  EU  part  of  €
 147 million 
 148 million, while for the school year 2011/2012 it came to €
for 2012/2013. 

 154 million, with €

 150 million and €

2. 

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SCHEME IN MEMBER STATES 

(a) 

Strategies 

The main requirement for Member States that wish to implement the Scheme is to submit a 
strategy prior to the period of implementation, which has to contain the key elements referred 
to in Article 103ga(2) of the Single CMO. 

Within the Member States, the Scheme has been implemented at a national or regional level. 
National  schemes  are  based  on  a  uniform  approach  and  are  centrally  developed  and 
administered. This has been the case for the vast majority of participating Member States. On 
the  one  hand,  regional  schemes  are  exclusively  developed  and  managed  on  a  regional  level 

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€
€
under  the  responsibility  of  regional  bodies,  as  in  Belgium  and  Germany  where  regions 
submitted  their  own  strategies.  On  the  other  hand,  some  regional  schemes  are  integrated 
within a national framework where one national strategy is submitted for several regions but 
with regional impact and management, as is the case of Spain. In certain Member States with 
a  regionalised  structure,  such  as  Germany1  ,  for  example,  not  all  regions  took  part  in  the 
Scheme.  

Some  Member  States  were  already  running  their  pre-existing  national  schemes,  such  as  the 
‘Food Dudes’ programme in Ireland or ‘Tutti Frutti’ in Flanders. These were later extended or 
strengthened by participating in the EU-wide Scheme. 

In its first year of application in the 2009/2010 school year, 24 Member States notified their 
strategies.  Latvia,  Sweden  and  Finland  decided  not  to  submit  strategies  and  the  United 
Kingdom  decided  not  to  apply  the  scheme  at  a  later  stage.  With  Bulgaria  and  Greece  not 
being  able  to  implement  their  strategies,  the  actual  implementation  of  the  Scheme  was 
reduced to 21 Member States. In subsequent school years (2010/2011 and 2011/2012), stable 
implementation was registered in 24 Member States, with the exception of Finland, Sweden 
and the United Kingdom. 

(b) 

Participating schools and children 

The  second  year  of  implementation  saw  a  significant  increase  and  an  expansion  of  the 
Scheme across participating Member States compared to the start-up phase in the 2009/2010 
school  year.  In  2010/2011  around  8.1  million  children  benefited  from  the  Scheme,  which 
represents an increase of over 70 % compared to the 4.7 million children receiving fruit and 
vegetable  products  in  2009/2010.  A  similar  trend  is  seen  when  it  comes  to  the  number  of 
schools taking part. In the 2010/2011 school year 54 000 schools registered their participation 
compared to 32 000 schools in 2009/2010. 

(c) 

Target group 

Member  States  are  free  to  determine  the  age  group  of  the  children  they  will  target  by  their 
Scheme. The data from annual monitoring reports shows that all the Member States decided 
to target predominantly children in primary schools in the age group 6 to 12 years. However, 
some  Member  States  extended  their  target  group  to  cover  pre-primary  level  as  well  with 
children younger than 6 years and/or secondary schools over 12 years of age. 

(d) 

Products and methods of distribution 

The Scheme’s distribution parameters are only partially determined by legislation. Therefore, 
it is largely left up to Member States to work out the most appropriate distribution method. 
This  pertains in  particular to the  list of products, number  of portions to be distributed, their 
weight/size,  distribution  frequency  and  the  period  of  distribution.  All  Member  States 
distributed fresh products, with apples, oranges, bananas, carrots and tomatoes being among 
the most popular. Some processed products were also used, such as unsweetened juices and 

1 

Only  7  out  of  16  federal  states  in  Germany  participate  in  the  Scheme,  namely  Baden  Wurttemberg, 
Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.  

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compotes,  raisins,  dried  fruits  and  the  like.  The  share  of  those  products  varied  from 
approximately 1 % in North Rhine-Westphalia to 62 % in Slovakia. Only four Member States 
focused their distribution on organic or local produce. 

The  most  widely  used  distribution  pattern  was  once  or  twice  per  week  for  over  20  weeks, 
while the average weight of the portions distributed was 100 g or more. The average price per 
portion  was  calculated  at  €  0.31.  In 
the  vast  majority  of  Member  States  the  products  were 
distributed under the Scheme outside the provision of regular school meals. 

(e) 

Accompanying measures 

Although  they  are  not  co-financed  from  the  EU  budget,  accompanying  measures  are  an 
obligatory  element  of  the  Scheme.  Given  Member  States'  wide  leeway  to  tailor  these 
measures  to  their  budget  and  educational  systems,  the  type,  frequency  and  strength  of  the 
accompanying  measures implemented vary a great deal. These measures could be  classified 
into prevailing measures directly linked to agriculture, such as farm visits, gardening sessions 
or  market  visits.  These  were  followed  by  educational  measures  with  a  number  of  seminars, 
lessons  and  pedagogical  kits  being  offered,  and  finally  other  popular  measures  such  as 
rewards, competitions or exhibitions.  

3. 

BUDGET IMPLEMENTATION 

For  the  first  school  year  2009/2010,  the  final  expenditure  amounted  to  €
 34  million 
representing  38 %  of  the  €
 90  million  EU  budget  allocated  to  the  Scheme.  The  main 
beneficiaries  in  terms  of  final  allocation  were  Germany,  Italy,  France  and  Poland,  while 
Hungary,  Slovakia,  Italy  and  Ireland  had  the  highest  uptake  in  terms  of  the  actual  use  of 
funding. 

For the school year 2010/2011, € 58.2 million had been spent, equal to 65.5  % of the available 
budget.  For  5  Member  States  (Austria,  Bulgaria,  France,  Lithuania  and  Portugal)  the 
expenditure rate remains below 30 % of their allocation while 6 Member States are between 
30 %  —  60 %  and  13  are  between  60 %  and  100 %,  with  Luxembourg  using  up  its  entire 
envelope. 

The  final  expenditure  for  the  school  year  2011/2012  will  not  be  known  until  2013. 
Expenditure  forecasts  until  15  October  2012  indicate  that  the  rate  of  expenditure  will  be 
around 60 %. This is similar to, if not slightly lower than the previous school year. Greece was 
not able to implement the Scheme and did not use its allocation. 

4. 

ACTIVITIES UNDER THE COMMISSION’S DIRECT MANAGEMENT AND NETWORKING 

The  Commission's  main  activities  involve  monitoring  the  Scheme’s  application  in  the 
Member States and providing a legal framework which enables it to run smoothly. 

As  regards  legislative  activities,  in  2011  the  Commission  adopted  two  amendments  to 
Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  288/2009.  In  the  light  of  experience,  it  was  necessary  to 
introduce a number of substantial modifications to facilitate the Scheme’s implementation by 
introducing greater flexibility and simplification. 

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Furthermore,  the  Commission  oversees  implementation  and  takes  stock  of  the  situation  in 
Member  States  by  analysing  and  summarising  information  gathered  from  Member  States  in 
their reports on annual monitoring and controls. 

Another  important  activity  for  which  the  Commission  is  responsible  concerns  networking 
with a view to increasing the Scheme’s visibility and exchanging experiences. In addition to 
meetings  with  Member  States’  representatives  within  the  framework  of  the  Management 
Committee, where regular updates on the state of play are provided, the ‘stakeholders’ group 
was established to advise on the practicalities of the Scheme’s implementation and as a forum 
for exchanging best practice. The first meeting of the group took place in February 2010 and 
has been held on an annual basis in 2011 and 2012. 

Moreover,  in  December  2009  the  Commission  adopted  a  decision2  setting  up  a  group  of 
experts  for  technical  advice  on  the  School  Fruit  Scheme.  The  members  of  this  group  were 
appointed in November 2011, 3 and comprise ten renowned independent experts. Their task is 
to assist the Commission with the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the Scheme.  

Still  within  the  framework  of  its  networking  activities,  the  Commission  created  a  website 
dedicated to the Scheme and subsequently carried out a major update4. The website serves as 
a key tool for disseminating information about the Scheme and the exchange of experiences, 
as well as making the implementation of the Scheme more transparent. 

Finally,  as  one  of  the  CAP  communication  measures,  the  Scheme  featured  in  the  wider  EU 
Healthy Eating Campaign for European school children, which ran from 2009 to 2010 under 
the slogan ‘Eat it, Drink it, Move it’. This ‘Tasty Bunch’ campaign was launched by means of 
a  travelling  exhibition  and  was  essentially  channelled  through  the  School  Milk  and  School 
Fruit Schemes. 

2 

3 
4 

Commission  Decision  2009/986/EU  of  18  December  2009  establishing  the  group  of  experts  for 
technical advice on the School Fruit Scheme, OJ L 338, 19.12.2009. 
OJ C 349, 30.11.2011, p. 7. 
www.ec.europa.eu/agriculture/sfs/index_en.htm . 

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