Editorial ¦ IDM
Grit your teeth
and get on with it!
EU: Principles don’t matter any longer
Will the recent ruling by the European Court of Justice stating that compulsory origin labelling of raw
materials (milk) used in dairy products is only allowed within narrow limits really make a difference?
This is open to question. So let's take a look - one step at a time.
Let us recall: At the end of September, the ECJ ruled that France's decree of 2017 is only compatible
with the European Food Labelling Regulation if there is a close link between origin and quality. Three
years back, the French had introduced an obligation, with the official approval of the EU Commission,
to make labelling milk and dairy products with the country of origin of the milk ingredients compulsory.
The French government, in response to angry milk producers, hoped that such a scheme would
benefit domestic products. Subsequently, other countries (Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Lithuania,
Finland, Romania) felt encouraged to adopt similar labelling rules. Whether and to what extent these
schemes have really helped domestic milk suppliers cannot be established or proven.
It is understandable that dairies in these countries, who mainly process just domestic raw material,
saw little reason to complain. However, multinational milk processors were concerned from the
outset about the partial abolition of the internal market principle. Lactalis, a French company, subsequently
went to court and has now been upheld by the ECJ. So far, so good.
The Luxembourg judges' ruling in no way invalidates the regulations in the above-mentioned countries
requiring origin marking. Rather, a lawsuit would have to be filed separately in each individual
country, or the legislator there would act on its own initiative.
A clear signal from the European Commission is therefore needed to show that it intends to enforce
the rules and principles of the Single Market in any case. Unfortunately, however, the Brussels authority
is busy with other things, as it has to push through the farm-to-fork strategy by hook or by crook. And
it says that by the end of 2022 an extension of the mandatory labelling of the origin of food ingredients
is to be introduced. In other words, exactly the opposite of what the EU Single Market provides for
in terms of the general marketability of products and the free movement of goods within the EU area.
What we are witnessing is nothing more than a tacit erosion of the basic idea of the Community
of States in favour of abstruse regulations, all under the sign of some kind of undefined and completely
disordered sustainability dictate. The administrative monster on the Rue de la Loi, in its quest
for "climate neutrality", seems prepared to throw even the most sacred principles of the EU fathers
overboard.
November/December ¦ international-dairy.com · 3
Roland Sossna
Editor IDM
International Dairy Magazine
sossna@blmedien.de
international-dairy.com
/international-dairy.com
/international-dairy.com
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