Source: EURLEX
Language: en
Format: md

No C 60/4 Official Journal of the European Communities 8. 3. 91

Opinion on the proposal for a Council Directive amending Directive 89/396/EEC on indications or marks identifying the lot to which a foodstuff belongs (*)

(91/C 60/02)

On 18 October 1990 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee,
under Article 100A of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, on the
abovementioned proposal.

The Section for Protection of the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Affairs, which
was responsible for preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its Opinion on
4 December 1990. The Rapporteur was Mr Gardner. Co-Rapporteurs were Mr Dunkel and
Mr Jaschick.

At its 282nd plenary session (meeting of 18 December 1990) the Economic and Social
Committee adopted the following Opinion unanimously.

1. Introduction

Lot marking enables defective products to be traced
and withdrawn from the market. It is therefore of
considerable benefit both to the consumer in prodiving
better safety and to the producer and his employees in
limiting withdrawal to that product which is actually
concerned. The Lot Marking Directive requires marking for most prepacked goods but exempts goods that
are not prepacked as well as most products from agricultural producers. The Commission now proposes also
to exempt individual packs of ice-cream provided that
the lot is marked on the outer package in bold because
'the product will usually be consumed immediately and
the consumer will not keep the package'.

2. The difficulties

2.1. For lot marking, the product has to be coded at
the time of production. The lot mark cannot be preprinted as can the 'best before' date which may be the
same for, say, a week.

2.2. Small individual ice-creams are either wrapped
very fast individually or at up to 24 at a time on multiple
machines.

For the first of these, coding machines are very expens

(!) OJ No C 267, 23. 10. 1990, p. 15.

ive (up to ECU 17 000 each). For the second, no viable
coder exists at present.

There is no problem in marking the outer combined
package.

2.3. The same problems also apply to small confectionery items.

2.4. It is likely that these problems can be solved in

some years.

3. General comments

3.1. The Committee considers individual lot marking
to be very important and would prefer to see no exemptions including the many items noted under paragraph
1 above.

3.2. It agrees that for small ice-creams the wrapper
is often thrown away immediately and cannot, therefore, be used for tracing. The safeguard then is lot
marking on the outer. The same argument applies to
small confectionery items.

3.3. It realises that, at present, there are severe cost
and technical problems for the products mentioned in
paragraph 3.2.

3.4. Taking the totality of the situation, it accepts
the principle proposed by the Commission but would
want to limit exemption to a few years only.

8. 3. 91 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 60/5

4. Detailed comments

4.1. Article 1 should be changed to:

'(d) to small individual portions of ice-cream and
confectionery, provided that the lot is indicated on
the combined packages.'

Done at Brussels, 18 December 1990.

Opinion on:

4.2. Article 2 (new):

'This exemption is limited to four years from the
date of publication of this Directive.'

_The Chairman_

_of the Economic and Social Committee_

Francois STAEDELIN

— the proposal for a Council Regulation (EEC) establishing a Community Customs Code,
and

— the proposal for a Council Regulation (EEC) determining the cases and the special
conditions under which the temporary importation arrangements may be used with total
relief from import duties (*)

(91/C 60/03)

On 2 April 1990 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under
Article 28, 100A and 113 of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, on
the abovementioned proposals.

The Section for Industry, Commerce, Crafts and Services, which was responsible for preparing
the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its Opinion on 5 December 1990. The
Rapporteur was Mr Petersen.

At its 282nd plenary session (meeting of 18 December 1990), the Economic and Social
Committee adopted the following Opinion unanimously.

1. General comments

1.1. In past years the Economic and social Committee has repeatedly and insistently called upon the Commission to introduce uniform customs legislation in
the Community. The present proposal establishing a
Community Customs Code meets this request. Community customs legislation ousts and largerly nullifies
national customs legislation. Consolidation could also
be used as a'model for areas other than customs law.

( [J] ) OJ No C 128, 23. 5. 1990, p. 1.

1.2. The consolidation in one single text of provisions from many different legal acts, the revision of
the underlying concepts and content of such provisions,
and the harminization of legislation not yet enacted at
Community level, make the Code a legal cornerstone
of the Customs Union. The Code also demonstrates the
importance of the Customs Union for the Community's
foreign trade within the context of the Single European
Market.

1.3. We should not, however, forget that the creation
of such a comprehensive and unique body of laws is
fraught with difficulties. The comprehensibility of the
document's language and the clear, methodical exposition of the concepts used are therefore to be wel