COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE IMPACT ASSESSMENT REPORT Revision of EU marketing standards for agricultural products to ensure the uptake and supply of sustainable products Accompanying the document Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Directives 2001/110/EC relating to honey, 2001/112/EC relating to fruit juices and certain similar products intended for human consumption, 2001/113/EC relating to fruit jams, jellies and marmalades and sweetened chestnut purée intended for human consumption, and 2001/114/EC relating to certain partly or wholly dehydrated preserved milk for human consumption
Date: 2023-04-21
Institutions: Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, European Commission
Subjects: consumer information, designation of origin, fruit juice, fruit product, honey, labelling, nut, powdered milk, preserved product, product designation, sugar

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 21.4.2023  SWD(2023) 98 final  COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE IMPACT ASSESSMENT REPORT  Revision of EU marketing standards for agricultural products to ensure the uptake and supply of sustainable products      Accompanying the document Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Directives 2001/110/EC relating to honey, 2001/112/EC relating to fruit juices and certain similar products intended for human consumption, 2001/113/EC relating to fruit jams, jellies and marmalades and sweetened chestnut purée intended for human consumption, and 2001/114/EC relating to certain partly or wholly dehydrated preserved milk for human consumption {COM(2023) 201 final} - {SEC(2023) 162 final} - {SWD(2023) 97 final}  
 
 
Agricultural marketing standards are existing provisions of statutory EU law. They form 
part  of  the  Common  Agricultural  Policy  (CAP)  and  are  laid  down  in  the  EP’s  and 
Council’s  Common  Market  Organisation  (CMO)  Regulation,  in  Commission  secondary 
regulations  as  well  as  in  the  so-called  Breakfast  Directives.  They  require  certain 
agricultural and food products to respect specific requirements so that they can lawfully 
be put on the market. These requirements often relate to product characteristics but may 
also  concern  origin,  productions  methods,  substances  used  in  the  production  or  accom-
panying  modalities  such  as  presentation  and  packaging  of  a  product.  A  certain  class  of 
marketing  standards,  called  optional  reserved  terms,  consists  of  voluntary  (valorising) 
labels. 

This revision covers those marketing standards which, pursuant to the experience of the 
Commission  during  their  application  as  well  as  due  to  the  evaluation  and  consultations 
carried out, appear as in need of modernisation, simplification or increased responsiveness 
to sustainability considerations as laid down in the Commission’s Farm to Fork strategy 
(F2F). These specific marketing standards are discussed in the impact assessment. 

The  EU  legislator  has  legislated  marketing  standards  first  and  foremost  to  address  the 
economic  needs  of  the  actors  in  the  chain,  including  the  consumers  of  the  products 
concerned. Certain standards should be adjusted, simplified or modernised to continue to 
be  fit  for  purpose.  Societal  issues,  say,  environmental  sustainability  or  animal  welfare 
have  so  far  played  a  limited  role.  The  impact  assessment  also  explores  the  scope  for 
greater  sustainability  under  the  mandate  of  the  F2F  strategy.  It  supports  and  ensures 
coherence  with  horizontal  F2F  actions  that  also  read  on  sustainability,  such  as  the 
framework  for  sustainable  food  systems,  sustainability  labelling  and  animal  welfare 
legislation  review.  The 
impact  assessment  does  not  suggest  a  one-size-fits-all 
sustainability approach for the different products at stake and does not attempt to establish 
a  baseline  that  would  apply  across  the  sectors.  The  relevant  arguments  that  inform  the 
discussion of marketing standards for purposes of the impact assessment and, eventually, 
the preferred solutions, rely, on case-by-case assessments that are based on the economic, 
social and environmental specificities of the products in question. 

Marketing  standards  do  not  generate  direct  public  expenditure  except  for  the  control 
regimes.  To  protect  the  value  that  marketing  standards  have  for  the  stakeholders  in  the 
chain, controls are generally devolved to the national authorities. The current revision is 
not expected to have a significant impact on national budgets. 

Marketing standards  apply  to  domestic  and  imported  products  alike, thus ensuring  loyal 
competition  to  the  benefit  of  consumers  and  producers.  Changes  to  the  standards  are 
therefore  liable  to  affect  third  country  producers  and  importers.  Under  WTO  rules, 
changes to marketing standards have to be pre-notified under the Agreement on Technical 
Barriers  to Trade. They  can  affect  existing  production  or  import  arrangements,  notwith-
standing  that  they  are  equally  applied  to  domestic  producers.  Such  notifications  should 
explain the policy rationale of the change against the objectives that underpin agricultural 
marketing standards. On the other hand, public standards may put a brake, to a degree, on 
the  proliferation  of  private  standards  and  their  –  sometimes  –  negative  impact  on  pro-
ducers in developing countries. 

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