Activities of Corinne LEPAGE related to 2013/2091(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the food crisis, fraud in the food chain and the control thereof PDF (239 KB) DOC (125 KB)
Amendments (31)
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 4 a (new)
Citation 4 a (new)
– having regard to Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2002 laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety, and in particular recitals 19 and 28 and Article 8 thereof;
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 4 b (new)
Citation 4 b (new)
– having regard to the report of the European Court of Auditors of 11 October 2012 on the management of conflicts of interest in four European Union agencies;
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas recent fraud cases include the marketing of ordinary flour as organic flour, of battery cage eggs as organic eggs, of road salt as food salt and of horsemeat as beef, and the use of methanol- contaminated alcohol in spirits and the fraudulent labelling of seafood products, in particular in the United States;
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas the food supply chain is often long and complex, involving many food business operators and other parties, and whereas, because there is no cumulative traceability, individual operators have only a very partial view of that chain, a state of affairs which serves to facilitate fraud;
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N a (new)
Recital N a (new)
Na. whereas the warnings concerning the increase in the number of horses being slaughtered in some EU Member States were completely ignored by the competent authorities, in particular the FVO;
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N b (new)
Recital N b (new)
Nb. whereas the conclusion of the free trade agreements currently envisaged by the European Union could serve to weaken European food safety legislation;
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N c (new)
Recital N c (new)
Nc. whereas a fresh effort must be made to see fraud in an economic context characterised by the global financial crisis and by social dumping inside and outside the European Union;
Amendment 41 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N d (new)
Recital N d (new)
Nd. whereas trading and reverse auctions are practices which serve to foster a race to the bottom as regards quality, safety and transparency and which have an impact on the profit margins of the whole sector;
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N e (new)
Recital N e (new)
Ne. whereas distribution practices and the use of distribution intermediaries are destabilising production markets by cutting producers’ margins;
Amendment 43 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 1
Subheading 1
Food fraudcrisis and fraud in the food chain: scope and definitions
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Points out that a food crisis may have one cause or a range of causes and may give rise to health problems, changes to people’s diets, economic imbalances within a sector which disrupt the smooth functioning of the markets and consumer mistrust as regards the integrity of the food chain;
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Notes that recent food fraud cases have exposed different types of food fraud, such as replacing key ingredients with cheaper alternatives, wrongly labelling the animal species used in a meat or seafood product, incorrectly labelling weight, selling ordinary foods as organic, unfairly using origin or animal welfare quality logos, labelling aquaculture fish as wild-caught, counterfeiting and marketing food past its ‘use-by’ date;
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Points out that foods which are often subject to fraudulent activities include olive oil, fish, organic products, grains, honey, coffee, tea, spices, wine, certain fruit juices, milk and milkeat;
Amendment 63 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Condemns the failure to provide consumers with clear information about the country of origin of food imports, in particular fishery products, as such imports can give rise, in third countries, to unacceptable competition with local fishermen, an increase in tensions in connection with access to food, violations of fundamental rights or piracy;
Amendment 70 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. Expresses concern at the reduction in funding in the European Union for the bodies which carry out these key monitoring tasks;
Amendment 71 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 b (new)
Paragraph 10 b (new)
10b. Expresses concern at the way that farms and abattoirs are being destabilised by the low margins in the sector, which are partly the result of social dumping which exploits the directive on the posting of workers1 in order to drive down production costs; __________________ 1 Directive 96/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 1996 concerning the posting of workers in the framework of the provision of services.
Amendment 87 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Calls on the Commission to carry out an inquiry in an effort to determine how the FVO could have ignored the increase in the number of horses being slaughtered in the European Union and failed to deduce that the horses in question would be entering the food chain;
Amendment 88 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 b (new)
Paragraph 16 b (new)
16b. Calls for strategies to combat food waste to be drawn up in an effort to help bring about a reduction in prices for consumers and an increase in margins for producers;
Amendment 92 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 a (new)
Paragraph 17 a (new)
17a. Draws attention to the negative impact which trading and reverse auctions have on producers’ profit margins, and calls for these practices to be banned;
Amendment 95 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Acknowledges the importance of clear and transparent business-to-business labelling and calls on the Commission to review EU food law in this area where necessary, to reduce the risk of food fraud;
Amendment 104 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Recalls that Parliament has previously called on the Commission to undertake impact assessments on origin labelling for fresh meat and products containing meat; legislative proposals on the origin labelling of fresh meat are in the pipeline and that Parliament has previously called on the Commission to assess the impact of origin labelling of meat used as an ingredient in foodstuffs; urges the Commission rapidly to present its impacthat assessments and report on this issue; stresses that origin labelling is not a tool for combating food fraud, although it may indirectly lead to a better-informed and more transparent supply chainto put forward at the same time legislative proposals which make it mandatory to indicate the origin of the meat used in processed foodstuffs; points out that the principle underpinning labelling is traceability, which is one of the most effective weapons in the fight against fraud;
Amendment 111 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 a (new)
Paragraph 22 a (new)
22a. Calls for the regional indications of origin used in marketing to be given better protection;
Amendment 112 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 b (new)
Paragraph 22 b (new)
22b. Calls for greater account to be taken of animal welfare and for more stringent penalties to be applied if the relevant rules are breached;
Amendment 113 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 c (new)
Paragraph 22 c (new)
22c. Calls for better labelling of processed products which contain fish, in particular as regards the origin of the fish and the fishing techniques used;
Amendment 114 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 d (new)
Paragraph 22 d (new)
22d. Calls for better labelling of fish on sale in fishmongers, in particular as regards the origin of the fish and the fishing techniques used;
Amendment 115 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 e (new)
Paragraph 22 e (new)
Amendment 116 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 f (new)
Paragraph 22 f (new)
22f. Calls on the Commission to develop a method of tracing and identifying meat from cloned animals, for example by setting up an international database containing genetic information about cloned animals;
Amendment 117 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 g (new)
Paragraph 22 g (new)
22g. Points out that, if they are to meet to the full their intended purposes of providing consumers with information and, above all, of guaranteeing traceability, labels showing the origin of meat must include details of the places where the animal in question was born, reared and slaughtered;
Amendment 133 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29 a (new)
Paragraph 29 a (new)
29a. Urges that coordination and communication between the national authorities responsible for investigating food fraud should be improved, thereby helping Member States to step up their efforts to combat this problem;
Amendment 136 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29 b (new)
Paragraph 29 b (new)
29b. Insists that the free trade agreements negotiated by the European Union must not give rise to changes in European food safety and food security legislation or any scaling down of efforts to enforce that legislation;
Amendment 139 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30
Paragraph 30
30. Welcomes the Commission proposal to strengthen penalties in order at least to offset the economic advantage sought through the violation, but considers that this is not dissuasive enough; believes that the Member States should set penalties for food fraud which are at least double the amount of the economic advance sought through the fraudulent activity; seems it necessary, as an extra deterrent, to set even higher penalties, including criminal law penalties, for fraudulent cases in which public health is deliberately endangered; proposes, furthermore, that in the event of repeated offences the food business operator’s registration be withdrawn and that the operator should face criminal law penalties;