Responding to EC president Jean-Claude Juncker’s state of the union speech on Wednesday (September 13), FoodandDrinkEurope president Hubert Weber warned that renationalising policies threatened food and drink manufacturers’ competitiveness.
In a letter to Juncker and vice president Frans Timmermans, Weber warned of the food and drink industry’s concerns about “the increasing trend to renationalise policies, such as the country of origin labelling measures adopted by several individual Member States”.
‘Stifling the competitiveness’
The commission should tackle “a growing list of outstanding/unaddressed policy issues, which are stifling the competitiveness of the sector,” he warned.
“In the absence of action at EU level, individual Member States have, in several instances, decided to go ahead on their own, creating fragmentation and problems for trade and business.”
Voicing food and drink manufacturers’ full support for the European project and key importance of the Single Market, Weber said better regulation, and particularly the mutual recognition principle, should be made more workable.
Importance of the Single Market
“FoodDrinkEurope supports an ambitious future for Europe and stands ready to cooperate with the European institutions in making a success of Future of Europe plans, which take into consideration the need for a strong and forward-looking union, which puts its people and societies first and creates wealth and prosperity for all,” the trade association said in a statement.
Jean-Claude Juncker’s warning
The UK will “soon regret” leaving the EU, he said. Is he right? Share your views in our quiz below.
The organisation represents Europe’s largest manufacturing sector, with 286,000 companies, including leading firms, with 4.2M employees.
Meanwhile, the UK will “soon regret” leaving the EU, warned Juncker in a wide-ranging speech to the European Parliament .
Juncker said: “Brexit is not the future of Europe. It is not the be all and end all.”
The president went on to set out plans for closer economic partnership and defence co-operation within the EU.
In March Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed that the UK would quit the Single Market of 510M consumers.
So, is Juncker right? Will the UK “soon regret” leaving the EU? Test your views against those of other FoodManufacture.co.uk readers by taking part in our quiz below.
