Ministers look set to agree on new food laws

Date: 23/05/1996

AGREEMENT appears to be on the cards next week on sensitive issues such as the purity of traditional German beer and the names given to additives made from seaweed.

If proof were needed of the closeness of food to European hearts, the fiery debates which invariably surround the adoption of draft new food laws provides it.

German beer has proven to be no exception to that rule. But, following months of bartering, internal market ministers now seem ready to agree on Tuesday (28 May) to allow Bonn to maintain its ban on the use of additives in traditional beer - but only on condition that Germany allows beer legally produced in other member states to be sold in the Federal Republic.

Under the proposal, Bonn would also be forced to sanction the production of non-traditional beer by foreign brewers on German soil.

At the moment, additives may not be used in the making of traditional beers in Germany. If they are used, then the beer in question must not be called “traditional German beer”.

Such a measure would, under normal circumstances, be deemed illegal by the Commission and challenged in court. But, given the sensitivity of the issue, the EU agreed to grant Germany a derogation from single market rules.

Anxious not to step on Bonn's tender toes, the Commission tried to slip through the derogation in the form of a footnote to another food directive. But that incensed MEPs, who insisted the matter should be dealt with in a separate directive on traditional foods in general.

That directive, which also grants a derogation to makers of certain types of French bread and Finnish cheese, will be presented to ministers on Tuesday - when, according to diplomats, they are likely to swallow it whole.

Similarly palatable, it seems, is a compromise deal being cooked up by the Italian presidency on the rather obscure but equally contentious issue of additives made from seaweed.

The original proposal provoked a furore not only in EU circles but also further afield, with Filipino President Fidel Ramos accusing the Union of unfair trade practices.

The row centres on whether unrefined seaweed additives (used in petfoods), as well as refined seaweed additives (used in meat products and desserts), should bear the number E407.

MEPs wanted the cruder version, largely manufactured in the Philippines, to be given a different identification tag to avoid confusion, and suggested the number E408.

But Ramos reacted furiously, accusing the EU of mounting barriers to international trade. It looked as if the dispute might spiral into a full-scale trade spat, but the gloomy predictions peddled by some MEPs and diplomats just months ago have in fact proved premature. Italy has now come up with a proposal which ministers, MEPs and the Philippines seem willing to accept.

Under the proposed compromise, the E-numbers of both products would remain the same, but the crude version of seaweed additive would have to have the letter 'a' and a different name attached to the number.