The European Parliament adopted, by 556 votes to 67 and 19 abstentions, a legislative resolution amending the proposal for a regulation amending Regulation No 11 concerning the abolition of discrimination in transport rates and conditions, in implementation of Article 79(3) of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community and Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs. The report had been tabled for consideration in plenary by Horst SCHNELLHARDT (EPP-ED, D) on behalf of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety.

The main amendments – adopted in the 1st reading of the co decision procedure are as follows:

-Members changed the title of the proposal, following the decision of the Conference of Presidents of 5 July 2007 authorising the ENVI and TRAN committees each to draw up a legislative report on the basis of Commission proposal. (Please see COD/2007/0037A ). Parliament also deleted the references to transport rates and conditions in this proposal;

-the legal basis for the proposal amending Regulation No 11 should be Article 75(3) of the EC Treaty, and the legal basis for the proposal amending Regulation No 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs should be Articles 152(4)(b) and 95 of the EC Treaty;

-in Regulation (EC) No 852/2004, the following new recital should be inserted: it is important that the competent authorities allow for the implementation of the flexibility provided for in this Regulation, especially in Article 5 (2)(g) and (5), in particular in relation to businesses which are micro-enterprises within the meaning of Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC concerning the definition of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises;

-food business operators may be exempted from the requirement to put in place, implement and maintain a permanent procedure or procedures based on the HACCP principles.This shall apply only to businesses within the meaning of Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC of 6 May 2003 (with a particular focus on micro-enterprises) and the activities of which consist predominantly in the direct sale of food to the final consumer, and provided the competent authority considers, on the basis of a regular hazard analysis, that either there are no hazards that must be prevented, eliminated or reduced to acceptable levels, or that identified hazards are sufficiently and regularly controlled through the implementation of general and specific food hygiene requirements. In requiring evidence of compliance with the requirements laid down in Article 4(2) to (6), the competent authority shall take due account of the nature and size of the food business.

The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety adopted a report by Horst SCHNELLHARDT (EPP-ED, D) and amended, in the framework of the codecision procedure, the proposal for a regulation amending Regulation No 11 concerning the abolition of discrimination in transport rates and conditions, in implementation of Article 79(3) of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community and Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs.

The main amendments were as follows:

-Members changed the title of the proposal, following the decision of the Conference of Presidents of 5 July 2007 authorising the ENVI and TRAN committees each to draw up a legislative report on the basis of Commission proposal. (Please see COD/2007/0037A ). The Committee also deleted the references to transport rates and conditions in this proposal;

-the legal basis for the proposal amending Regulation No 11 should be Article 75(3) of the EC Treaty, and the legal basis for the proposal amending Regulation No 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs should be Articles 152(4)(b) and 95 of the EC Treaty;

-the competent authorities must apply the flexibility provided for in Regulation (EC) No 852/2004, in particular Article 5(2)(g) and (5) thereof, in order to avoid undue burdens for small businesses;

-food business operators may be exempted from the requirement to put in place, implement and maintain a permanent procedure or procedures based on the HACCP principles. This shall apply only to businesses within the meaning of Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC of 6 May 2003 (with a particular focus on micro-enterprises) and the activities of which consist predominantly in the direct sale of food to the final consumer, and provided the competent authority considers, on the basis of a regular hazard analysis, that either there are no hazards that must be prevented, eliminated or reduced to acceptable levels, or that identified hazards are sufficiently and regularly controlled through the implementation of general and specific food hygiene requirements. In requiring evidence of compliance with the requirements laid down in Article 4(2) to (6), the competent authority shall take due account of the nature and size of the food business.

PURPOSE: to amend Regulation 852/2004/EC on the hygiene of foodstuffs by excluding micro-enterprises from the requirement of maintaining permanent procedures based on the HACCP principles.

PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.

CONTENT: on 14 November 2006, the Commission presented a Strategic Review of Better Regulation in the EU (see INI/2007/2095 ), including a proposal for a target to reduce the administrative burdens on businesses by 25% by 2012. Ten concrete proposals for "fast track action" were identified the Action Programme for reducing administrative burdens in the EU (see the summary dated 27/01/2007), based on broad stakeholder consultation and suggestions from Member States and Commission experts. The "fast track actions" aim at significantly reducing administrative burdens on businesses through minor legislative changes without challenging the level of protection or the original purpose of the legislation.

This proposal deals with a "fast track action" relating to Regulation 852/2004/EC on the hygiene of foodstuffs. The purpose is to exempt small food businesses able to control food hygiene simply by implementing the other requirements of Regulation 852/2004/EC from the requirement to put in place, implement and maintain a permanent procedure or procedures based on the hazard analysis and critical control points ("HACCP") principles. This exemption will apply to micro-enterprises that are predominantly selling food directly to the final consumer. These enterprises have less than ten employees and have an annual turnover or annual balance sheet total that does not exceed EUR 2 million. The exemption would therefore not apply to large surface supermarkets and franchisers of supermarket chains.

Another "fast track action" relates to Regulation No 11 852/2004/EC concerning the abolition of discrimination in transport rates and conditions, by removing outdated documentation (see COD/2007/0037A ).