Freshfel welcomes new framework for EU promotion programmes
The European Parliament adopted yesterday a compromise package to reform the European promotion policy. On the basis of this package, the Parliament, the Council and the Commission will, in the coming weeks, finalise the new scheme that will govern at the European level the promotion of agricultural products.
The new framework will increase EU funding for agriculture promotion programmes from roughly 60 million EUR at present to 200 million EUR in 2020, of which the lion share is expected to remain with the fresh fruit and vegetable sector. Besides, the revised scheme will also raise the EU contribution in the total programme up to ca 75 % and make it easier to put European programmes in place with partners from different Member States. Importantly, the text voted by the Parliament keeps the possibility for undertaking both promotion and information campaigns on the internal market and in non-EU countries.
The increase of the promotion budget is another positive step for the fruit and vegetable sector after the increase of funding for the EU school fruit scheme from 90 to 150 million EUR. This should provide favourable conditions to emphasise the fun, taste and health aspects associated with fresh fruit and vegetable consumption.
Philippe Binard, General Delegate of Freshfel underlined that “the reform will open new opportunity for the sector to get access to increased resources to stimulate the consumption of fresh produce and indicates that the awareness at EU level to get better support for information and communication actions to boost fresh produce consumption” Freshfel expects that the new promotion policy will come into force in 2015.
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