14 Nominal quantities for pre-packed
products
| (27447)
8680/06
COM(06) 171
| Draft Directive laying down rules on nominal quantities for pre-packed products, repealing Council Directives 75/106/EEC and 80/232/EEC, and amending Council Directive 76/211/EEC
|
| Legal base | Article 95EC; co-decision; QMV
|
| Document originated | 12 April 2006
|
| Deposited in Parliament | 2 May 2006
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| Department | Trade and Industry
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 13 June 2006
|
| Previous Committee Report | None, but see footnotes
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| To be discussed in Council | No date set
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared
|
Background
14.1 According to the Commission, the different national rules
on nominal quantities of pre-packed products which existed in
the 1960s were a major barrier to the free movement of goods between
the Member States. Despite this, concerns about the impact which
new Community rules would have on companies operating only on
their national market led to the adoption of an optional approach,
whereby Member States would be allowed to maintain existing national
rules, with only products conforming with the Community rules
benefiting from free circulation.
14.2 The one main exception to this approach was
that Council Directive 75/106/EEC made Community sizes mandatory
for products such as wines and spirits, but, as our predecessors
noted in their Report of 26 January 2005, a review by the Commission
had shown that free (as opposed to fixed) sizes would be the most
favourable option.[47]
At the same time, the Commission also pointed out that there might
be sectors for which regulation on the basis of total harmonisation
should be maintained, for example, in order to offset disproportionate
buyer pressure from large distributors. It accordingly proposed
in October 2004[48] that
all existing optional pack sizes should be repealed, but that
total harmonisation should for the next 20 years be maintained
for wine, spirits, soluble coffee and white sugar.
14.3 This would mean that, with the exception of
these four sectors, all those products currently subject to specified
quantities in the UK (including milk, bread, cereal, flour, jam,
pasta, potatoes and tea) could be packaged in any size, and that
there would in future be no scope for Member States to legislate
for their own pack sizes. Our predecessors were told that the
Government is broadly in favour of deregulation of most products
covered by the Commission's proposals. However, there were concerns
that the need in future to rely on checking quantity statements
and unit pricing information could be particularly detrimental
to certain groups, such as the blind and those who have difficulty
reading, and that there was a risk of packers seeking to maintain
price points by marginally reducing quantity to the detriment
of the inattentive consumer. In view of this, the UK would be
seeking to retain specified quantities for a limited number of
staple products of particular importance, namely milk (other than
sterilised or speciality milks), tea, bread, butter and margarine.
It was also in favour of a further review of the working of the
new Directive after a suitable period, rather than the eventual
automatic removal of the provision for all specified quantities
after 20 years.
14.4 These considerations, and in particular the
potential impact of the proposal on certain vulnerable groups
of consumers, led our predecessors to recommend it for debate
in a European Standing Committee. We endorsed that decision at
our first meeting on 4 July 2005,[49]
and the debate duly took place on 7 November 2005.
The current proposal
14.5 The proposal has since been considered by both
the Council and European Parliament, and, following in particular
the latter's first reading on 2 February 2006, the Commission
has now brought forward this amended proposal. However, although
the Parliament had supported fixed sizes for the four sectors
proposed, it had also sought to extend these to a number of areas
(milk, butter, dried pasta, rice, ground and unground coffee,
and brown sugar) and retain the ability of Member States to set
specified quantities for tea, spreadable fats and pre-packed bread,
whereas the Commission has now withdrawn its proposal that harmonisation
should apply to soluble coffee and white sugar, and has instead
proposed that such an approach should be confined to wines and
spirits. (It has also maintained that Member States should no
longer be able to legislate for their own pack sizes.)
The Government's view
14.6 In his Explanatory Memorandum of 13 June 2006,
the Minister for Trade, Investment and Foreign Affairs at the
Department of Trade and Industry (Mr Ian McCartney) reiterates
that the UK supports deregulation in principle, and therefore
supports the Commission's proposal. However, he also says that
the Government is aware that fixed sizes are popular with consumer
groups and with particular producers, and that it would therefore
be content for the proposals to be amended on the lines proposed
by the European Parliament.
Conclusion
14.7 As with the proposal put forward by the Commission
in October 2004 and considered by our predecessors, the issue
here remains the balance to be struck between deregulation and
consumer protection, where it would appear that the Government
intends to continue to adopt an essentially pragmatic approach.
In view of this, and bearing in mind the various considerations
involved were explored fully in the debate held in a European
Standing Committee on 7 November 2005, we see no reason to withhold
clearance of this document, given also that the Commission has
made only marginal changes to its original proposal.
47 In that it would allow full competition for industry
and freedom of choice for consumers, and that national legislation
increases confusion in the internal market. Back
48
(26187) 15570/04; see HC 38-v (2004-05), para 3 (26 January 2005)
and HC 38-xv (2004-05), para 1 (6 April 2005). Back
49
HC 34-i. Back
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