Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-06-18-Speech-1-097"
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"en.20070618.15.1-097"2
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".
Mr President, honourable Members, I am speaking on behalf of my colleague, Commissioner Fischer Boel, who wishes to thank the rapporteur, Mr Schnellhardt, and the members of the various committees involved in drawing up this excellent report. She also wishes to express her appreciation for the good cooperation between all involved in Parliament and the Council, and to thank the Council for its work. As a result of this cooperation, the work has moved smoothly and steadily towards achieving the result of which we are all aware.
On 15 December 2005, the Commission submitted a proposal for a new regulation on the definition, description, presentation and labelling of spirit drinks. Since then, a whole series of discussions have taken place: a public hearing took place in Parliament on 20 July 2006; there were reports from the Committee responsible, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety; there were opinions from the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection. This process has been very intensive and constructive under the codecision procedure. A series of informal trialogues took place which led to the Council’s general approach, which not only accommodates most of the Member States’ concerns, but also reflects the European Parliament’s powers of codecision by taking the vast majority of its proposals on board.
One proposal in particular that has been taken on board is the abolition of the initial proposal for the categorisation of spirit drinks; secondly, the introduction of a strong quality policy for spirit drinks; thirdly, the withdrawal of the proposal to allow flavours to be added to eau de vie; and fourthly, the strengthening of the powers of the European Parliament by introducing the regulatory committee with scrutiny procedures in most of the cases for which provision is made for comitology. Those are just a few of the essential amendments which were introduced on the initiative of the European Parliament. During this whole procedure, my colleague, Commissioner Fischer Boel, has played a constructive and pragmatic role with a view to finding a result that we hope the European Parliament will be able to endorse.
In line with the international obligations deriving from the TBT Agreement and following the Council’s request of 23 April 2007, the Commission sent the file to the WTO, setting a two-month period for comments. This notification was formally made on 1 June 2007.
As regards vodka, the Commission still has some reservations at this stage, which are primarily of a legal nature. The Commission has always taken a clear stance that it must ensure that a definition of vodka is compatible with EU law and fits the WTO context. The definition of the raw-material bases for this popular product – which is enjoying considerable market buoyancy worldwide – has been subject to considerable debate in the last month. The general approach of the Council distinguishes the labelling of vodka between one group based on potatoes and cereals, and those products which are derived from other raw materials which shall bear the indication ‘produced from’ and list the products that go into it. The Commission’s legal service has expressed concern about the compatibility of this solution both with EU law and with WTO obligations.
Any restriction of the present legislation needs to be duly justified and proportionate; the least intrusive way has to be found to serve this goal. So my colleague would like to conclude with these words: ‘For the time being, let me congratulate the Council Presidency and Parliament for their very successful collaboration, which I hope will be endorsed as a first-reading agreement by Parliament in view of a final adoption once the WTO notification procedure has been brought to an end in two months’ time’."@en1
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