The procedure of approval of the delegated act on the optional quality term ‘mountain product’ is in its final phases. The European Commission notified on 11th of March to the Council and Parliament the final version of the text that they approved, following the absence of comments from WTO. Member States and MEPs now have two months to adopt or reject the text but they cannot amend it anymore.
In absence of possibility to amend the text, and in recognition of the improvements which have been consented by the Commission in the last quarter of 2013, Euromontana decided to encourage the Institutions to adopt the text so that mountain communities can quickly move on to concrete implementation. While doing so, we highlighted our points of satisfaction on feed origin and restrictions to processing derogations. We also renewed our concerns on some parts of the text which are weakening the scheme and convey important risks for mountain supply chains, especially with regard to dairy processing derogations.
A press release resulting from the consultative process which has been on-going with the whole network since early January has been communicated to all permanent representations in Brussels which were to participate in the Council meeting on 25th of March. It will be communicated to the MEPs when the subject will be put on their own agendas.
Relaying the voice of Euromontana members and the contents of the General Assembly discussions, Euromontana reminded that the European Charter for MOuntain Quality Food products is and shall remain the structuring text which will drive further developments. The Charter is more ambitious but it needs the legislation which is about to be adopted as a building block.
The European Mountain Convention scheduled on 22-24 October 2014 will provide a real opportunity to discuss these further developments.
