Activities of Catherine STIHLER related to 2015/2065(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Unfair trading practices in the food supply chain (A8-0173/2016 - Edward Czesak)
Amendments (24)
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas UTPs occur where there is a lack of economic balance in trading relations between partners in the food supply chain, resulting from bargaining power and income disparities in business relations and constituting a serious disturbance to market balance;
Amendment 146 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. Notes the serious misuse of basic foods as "loss leaders" by large scale retailers and the risks posed by this activity to primary food producers and the threat to the long term sustainability of European production of such items;
Amendment 153 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Believes that the Supply Chain Initiative and other national and EU voluntary systems (codes of good practice, voluntary dispute settlement mechanisms) should be further developed and promoted; encourages producers and traders, particularly by securing full anonymity of complaints and robust sanctions regime; encourages producers and traders, including farmers' organisations, to become involved in such initiatives; takes the view that they should play a leading role in efforts to combat UTPs;
Amendment 177 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Stresses that action to combat UTPs will help to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market and, to develop cross- border trading within the EU and with third countries and to bring equity into the food supply chain, particularly for farmers and primary producers but also for consumers;
Amendment 184 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Notes that short food supply chains have generally lower risk of UTPs' occurrence and are better for the environment; demands comprehensive action from the Commission to promote and facilitate short, local and sustainable food supply chains;
Amendment 197 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Reaffirms that free and fair competition, freedom to contract and properstrong and effective enforcement of the relevant legislation to protect all enterprises in the food supply chain, irrespective of geographical location, are of key importance in ensuring the proper functioning of the food supply chain;
Amendment 269 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 a (new)
Paragraph 21 a (new)
21a. Is convinced that consumer awareness is fundamental to address the problems resulting from imbalances in the food supply chain, including UTPs; calls on all stakeholders involved in food supply chain management to step up transparency in the overall food supply chain, increase consumer information by more adequate product labelling and certification schemes in order to enable consumers to make fully informed choices about available products and to act accordingly;
Amendment 318 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. Is concerned about the Commission report which does not take into account many findings of the study, notably with regard to the assessment of voluntary approaches;
Amendment 322 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 c (new)
Paragraph 3 c (new)
3c. Regrets that no concrete case has been examined to assess the SCI role in tackling unfair trading practices;
Amendment 323 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 d (new)
Paragraph 3 d (new)
3d. Regrets that some of the dispute resolution options promoted by the SCI have not yet been used in practice and the assessment of their effectiveness has been based more on "theoretical" judgments rather than on empirical observation;
Amendment 324 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 e (new)
Paragraph 3 e (new)
3e. Rather than simply encouraging some improvements in the SCI, stresses that study evaluating the effectiveness of the SCI highlights a broad range of its shortcomings – lack of trust from external experts and organisations, weaknesses in governance, under-representation of SMEs, limitations in transparency and no enforcement measures and penalties;
Amendment 325 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 f (new)
Paragraph 3 f (new)
3f. Stresses the evaluation of the study which concludes that SCI has very limited powers to directly enforce measures to address UTPs, notably due to the lack of effective deterrents against unfair behaviour;
Amendment 326 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 g (new)
Paragraph 3 g (new)
3g. Believes, that current voluntary framework's dispute resolutions should remain available for all suppliers who are not concerned about their anonymity and may usefully evolve as an educational and best practices sharing platform;
Amendment 327 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 h (new)
Paragraph 3 h (new)
3h. Regrets that study assessed only 4 national voluntary initiatives; points out that only one of those is generally considered as effective and adequate; on the contrary, another one has been negatively affected by serious weaknesses and no disputes have been brought before the board to date;
Amendment 328 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 i (new)
Paragraph 3 i (new)
3i. Points out that recent study findings do not bring the evidence for the Commission's evaluation statement that voluntary initiatives seem to work better in some countries than in others, and that the Commission should seriously take into account several rather negative national experiences with voluntary agreements in order to move towards establishing concrete legislative and enforcing measures to prevent unfair trading practices;
Amendment 339 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Points out, following the recent Commission study main findings on the Supply chain initiative, that more than 20 Member States have introduced legislation to combat UTPs or are planning to do so in the near future; welcomes that Commission report identifies a number of specific areas to be improved in this regard; believes, that this set of best practices should serve as a basis for effective and transparent framework of legislative and enforcement measures in the EU;
Amendment 372 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 a (new)
Paragraph 17 a (new)
17a. Notes results of the study, where survey respondents indicated as the most preferred approaches in tackling UTPs the combination of voluntary initiatives and public enforcement (33% of total answers) or a specific legislation at EU level (32%); on the other side, reliance on voluntary initiatives alone at national (4%) or EU level (9 %) resulted to be the less preferred approach;
Amendment 373 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 b (new)
Paragraph 17 b (new)
17b. Believes that in order to reduce UTPs effectively, the Commission should take concrete measures to create common binding rules and should establish or appoint a network of national enforcement authorities which operate according to minimum principles and enforcement standards developed at the EU level;
Amendment 375 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 d (new)
Paragraph 17 d (new)
17d. Welcomes that the Commission finds it necessary to ensure that UTP legislation covers operators from non-EU countries; Believes that clear and transparent rules at the EU level would facilitate fair trading practices towards third countries traders;
Amendment 378 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)
Paragraph 18 a (new)
18a. Is convinced that functioning enforcement mechanisms should be accessible to all market operators in the food supply chain, regardless of geographical origin;
Amendment 379 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 b (new)
Paragraph 18 b (new)
18b. Believes that the scope of enforcement should cover entire supply chain both inside Europe and overseas in order to positively contribute to the overall sustainability of the food production; suggests coordinated enforcement across the EU to discourage market players from moving their purchasing department to low-enforcement countries to continue with UTPs;
Amendment 380 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 c (new)
Paragraph 18 c (new)
18c. Calls on Member States without a competent enforcement authority to consider establishment of enforcement authority and provide it with the power to supervise and enforce measures necessary to tackle UTPs;
Amendment 381 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 d (new)
Paragraph 18 d (new)
18d. Points out that existing fragmented and low enhanced cooperation within different national enforcement bodies is not sufficient to address cross-border challenges regarding UTPs;
Amendment 382 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 e (new)
Paragraph 18 e (new)
18e. Highlights that the enforcement authorities should have a number of different enforcement measures and different range of sanctions at their disposal to allow, according to the gravity, flexibility of response; believes that these measures should aim at changing behaviour and deterrence;