Fourth summary of progress on the consolidation and simplification of food hygiene legislation

2. Under Spanish Presidency, the Council Working Group concentrated heavily on the first proposal on the hygiene of foodstuffs. Document 9240/2/02 REV2, prepared by the Council Secretariat comprises a recast of the original proposal taking into account the discussions in Council Working Group up to 20 June.

It also reflects some of the amendments voted on by the European Parliament and which, following acceptance by the Commission, became included in the proposal. References to individual delegations have been removed. This is a working document and not an agreed record.

3. The Council Secretariat also produced document 10290/02
(which was discussed in Council Working Group) that outlined the key outstanding issues for resolution prior to the proposal coming before the Council of Ministers on 27 June (see below). This is also a working document and not an agreed record..

4. There was also limited discussion of certain aspects of the second proposal on specific rules applicable to products of animal origin. This was based on document 5035/02 which was attached to the third update. A further document was issued (8588/02)
that reflects discussion in Council Working Group on the Articles of the proposal (see below). As before, this is a working document and not an agreed record.

5. As explained in the third update, The European Commission decided to withdraw the third of the suite of proposals, on the rules for the organization of official controls on products of animal origin intended for human consumption, by means of a report to Council number 5475/01. A revised proposal is yet to be issued formally, but is expected to do so in the middle of July.

Negotiations: Danish Presidency

6. Under Danish Presidency, the Council Working Group is returning to discussion of the proposal on specific rules applicable to products of animal origin. Denmark also hopes to begin discussion of the third proposal when it emerges in a revised form. It will progress discussion of these two proposals in tandem, reflecting the close link between them.

European Parliament

7. The European Parliament held its first reading of the first two proposals, on the hygiene of foodstuffs and specific hygiene rules for food of animal origin, on 15 May 2002. Mr. Schnellhardt (rapporteur) presented two reports to plenary session on behalf of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy. The European Parliament (EP) voted to adopt 102 amendments to the first proposal and 122 amendments to the second proposal. The EU Commission, while generally supportive of the amendments proposed by the Parliament, rejected 32 of its amendments on the first proposal and 13 on the second. Two information notes (8868/02 and 8869/02) report on these deliberations and can be found below.

Agriculture Council

8. On 27 June, the Agriculture Council reached political agreement on the first hygiene proposal. Agreement was reached on the points of principle contained in the proposal on the basis of the documents mentioned in paragraphs 2 and 3 above. The text will need to be considered by Jurist/Linguists group to ensure internal legal and linguistic consistency. In the period prior to the Council meeting concerns were raised about dealing with the first of the proposals in isolation in this way.

It was agreed therefore to include a declaration in the minutes statement to the effect, that Council will not formally adopt a common position until discussions on other parts of the package of proposals have sufficiently advanced to ensure consistency between the elements of the package and their implementation dates. The UK was content to go along with political agreement on this basis.

Regulatory Impact Assessment

9. The original consultation pack on the proposals was accompanied by an Initial Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) on the likely effects for business and other interests of the implementation of the measures. Work has been ongoing to update and improve that RIA and the latest updated partial version is below. The RIA will continue to be further refined in the light of progress in the negotiations and further information.

Comments and feedback

10. We should be pleased to have any comments or feedback on this update or on the latest versions of the proposals. We would particularly welcome comments on the latest version of the RIA. Please feel free to contact:

Catherine Bowles
catherine.bowles@foodstandards.gov.uk
020 7276 8952

Gary Taylor
gary.taylor@foodstandards.gov.uk
020 7276 8939