Activities of Francisco de Paula GAMBUS MILLET related to 2016/2223(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Resource efficiency: reducing food waste, improving food safety (debate) ES
Amendments (39)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 9 a (new)
Citation 9 a (new)
- having regard to the Special Report by the European Court of Auditors entitled ‘Combating Food Waste: an opportunity for the EU to improve the resource-efficiency of the food supply chain’ of 10 November 2016,
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas food is lost or wasted at all steps of the supplyfood chain, including production, processing, transport, storage, retail, marketing and consumption chain; whereas estimates from the FUSIONS project indicate that the sectors contributing the most to food waste within the EU are households and processing, accounting for up to 53 %, and processing, accounting for up to 19 %10; _________________ 10 FUSIONS, Estimates of European food waste levels, March 2016.
Amendment 45 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
Ea. whereas a targeted measure, tailored to the operators and the step in the chain, is more appropriate to combating food waste, as the problems encountered are not the same across the board;
Amendment 55 #
F. whereas there is no common consistent definition of ‘food waste’ nor a common methodology for measuring food waste at Union level yet, which makes it difficult to compare different datasets and to measure progress in reducing food waste; whereas in the FUSIONS project, food wasdifficulties associated was defined as ‘any food, and inedible parts of food, removed from the food supply chain to be recovered or disposed (including composted, crops ploughed in/not harvested, anaerobic digestion, bio-energy productiith collecting full, reliable and harmonised data are an additional obstacle in evaluating food waste in the EU; whereas there is no common, co- generation, incineration, disposal to sewer, landfill or discarded to sea)’11; _________________ 11FUSIONS Definitional Framework for Food Waste, 3 July 2014.nsistent definition of the concept of ‘loss’ either, nor a common methodology for measuring it at Union level;
Amendment 72 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas the waste management hierarchy established by the Waste Framework Directive12 (prevention, preparing for re-use, recycling, recovery and disposal) cannot be applied in full to food waste; whereas currently there is no specific hierarchy for the management of unconsumed food at EU level; whereas prevention ought to be the priority measure in combating food waste; _________________ 12 Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on waste and repealing certain Directives (OJ L 312, 22.11.2008, p. 3).
Amendment 77 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas date marking on food products is poorly understood; whereas ‘best before’ labelling indicates the date after which an item of food may still be eaten but may not be at its best in terms of quality, and ‘use by’ labelling indicates the date after which an item of food is no longer safe to eat; whereas not even half of EU citizens understand the meaning of ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ labelling14; whereas the use of these concepts and the understanding of them vary from one Member State to another, but also, for the same product, vary between different producers, processors and distributors; _________________ 14 Flash Eurobarometer 425, ‘Food waste and date marking’, September 2015.
Amendment 87 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J
Recital J
J. whereas the donation of unsold food along the entire supplyfood chain leads to considerable reductions in food waste, while helping people in need of food;
Amendment 90 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J a (new)
Recital J a (new)
Ja. whereas European funds facilitate the donation of food, such as the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD), which enables finance to be provided for, among other necessities, storage and transport infrastructure for food donation bodies; whereas not enough use is made of these means by the Member States;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K a (new)
Recital K a (new)
Ka. whereas the European Commission is currently working on a clarification of European legislation on donations;
Amendment 95 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L
Recital L
L. whereas countrimany Member States, such as Italy or France, have adopted legislation that facilitates food donation by excluding donor liability for food that is donated in good faith and known to be fit for consumption at the time of donation;
Amendment 103 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N a (new)
Recital N a (new)
Na. whereas combating food waste also brings economic benefits, as each euro spent on preventing food waste makes it possible to avoid 265 kg of food waste, with a value of EUR 535, and enables local authorities to save EUR 9 on the cost of waste and EUR 50 on environmental costs linked to greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution1 a; _________________ 1a Commission staff working document, executive summary of the impact assessment, impact assessment on measures addressing food waste to complete SWD (2014) 207 regarding the review of EU waste management targets (SWD(2014) 289 final, 23.9.2014).
Amendment 109 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Stresses the urgent need to reduce the amount of food waste in the Union at every step of the supplyfood chain, including production, processing, transport, storage, retail, marketing and consumption chain;
Amendment 122 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Calls for a coordinated policy response at EU and Member State level that takes into account policies regarding waste, food safety and information, but also aspects of economic, research and innovation, environment, agriculture, education, and social policystructural (agriculture and fisheries), land use planning, education, and social policy; notes that the common agricultural policy and the common fisheries policy do not have the aim of combating food waste, but may contribute to it;
Amendment 135 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to put the financial support that already exists for combating food waste on a permanent footing; calls on the Member States to make better use of the opportunities offered in this area by the various European Union policies and funding programmes;
Amendment 139 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls for a binding food waste reduction target of 50 % by 2030 and reiterates its call for a binding food waste reduction target of at least 30 % by 2025on the Member States to take measures which aim to achieve an EU food waste reduction target of 30 % by 2025 and 50 % by 2030 as compared with the 2014 baseline;
Amendment 147 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Urges the Commission to swiftlyInvites Member States to monitor and assess the implementation of their food waste prevention measures by measuring the levels of food waste on the basis of a common methodology; urges the Commission to adopt asuch common methodology to measure foodby 31 December 2017, including minimum quality requirements, for the uniform measurement of the levels of food waste; that methodology shall take into account the waste prevention measures implemented through donations or other ways of preventing food from becoming waste;
Amendment 164 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Calls on the Commission to work on a common definition of the concept of ‘loss’ at each step in the food chain, and a common measurement methodology in collaboration with the Member States and all the parties involved;
Amendment 187 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
Amendment 192 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Welcomes the recent creation of the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste, which enables information to be exchanged between the operators involved; calls on the Commission to provide Parliament with a precise list of the measures currently being taken and the objectives and sub-objectives pursued, as well as the state of progress of the work being done on a common methodology and on donations;
Amendment 197 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Calls on the European Commission, in the framework of the research projects financed by the EU budget, to promote innovative technologies able to extend the shelf-life of food products;
Amendment 198 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Encourages the Commission and the Member States to engage, in cooperation with stakeholders, in improving consumers’the understanding of ‘use by’ dates and ‘best before’ dates; asks the Commission to assess whether on the part of producers, processors, distributors and consumers by cuarrent EU legislation and current practice in use with ‘use by’ and ‘best before’ dates in different Member States are fit for purposeying out awareness- raising and education campaigns, with a particular focus on consumers; stresses the efforts already made by many operators in the chain on this issue, such as the running of information campaigns in shops or on the internet;
Amendment 211 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Calls on the Commission, as part of the evaluation that it is currently carrying out, to assess, in particular: whether current EU legislation and the use currently made in various Member States of the ‘best before’ date and the ‘use by’ date are fit for purpose; whether a revision of the ‘use by’ and ‘best before’ dates terminology, according to the Member States, should be considered to make it easier for consumers to understand them; whether it might be beneficial to remove certain dates for products where no risk to health or the environment exists; whether it might be advisable to introduce European guidelines on this issue;
Amendment 217 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Asks the Commission to update the list of foods currently exempt from 'best before' labelling in order to prevent food waste;
Amendment 218 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote consumer understanding by all operators in the food chain of food waste, food safety, and good practices in relation to their management and consumption of food by establishing information and communication campaigns;
Amendment 243 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote and exchange successful practices of food waste reduction and resource conservation methods already used by stakeholders;
Amendment 250 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. Calls on the Member States to encourage local governments, civil society, supermarkets and other relevant stakeholders to support food waste reducing initiatives and contribute to a local food strategy, for example, by informing consumers, via a mobile application, about unsold foods, aligning demand and supply;
Amendment 275 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12a. Calls on the Commission to promote the creation in Member States of agreements stipulating that the retail food sector shall distribute unsold products to charity associations;
Amendment 277 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Calls on the Commission to propose and the Member States to implement a change in the VAT Directive that would explicitly authorise tax exemptions on food donations in particular for food banks and for charitable organisations;
Amendment 279 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Calls on the Commission to propose a change in the VAT Directive that would explicitly authorise tax exemptions on food donations; calls on the Member States to follow the Commission’s recommendations and to set a VAT rate that is low or close to zero if the donation is made close to the recommended ‘use by’ date or if the food is unsaleable;
Amendment 281 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13a. Calls on the Commission, when conducting an impact assessment on new relevant legislative proposals, to evaluate their potential impact on food waste;
Amendment 283 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13a. Calls on the Commission and the Member States not to divert resources of the Fund for European Aid to the most Deprived (FEAD) for food banks and charitable organisations towards other target groups, in particular in response to the migration challenge; welcomes in this regard the Commission's proposal for additional financing to tackle the migration challenge in the European Union;
Amendment 304 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14a (new)
Paragraph 14a (new)
14a. Calls on the European institutions and the Member States to promote exemplary behaviour by public authorities in relation to combating food waste in public catering;
Amendment 315 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15a. Stresses the importance of packaging that is appropriate for the product and for consumers’ needs, taking into account the functions fulfilled by the packaging throughout the distribution chain, in order to avoid food waste, and taking into account an approach based on the packaging life-cycle;
Amendment 321 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15a. Calls on the European Commission, within the actions of the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food waste, to assess the best practices already implemented in the different Member States, in order to better define effective instruments to reduce food waste;
Amendment 326 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 b (new)
Paragraph 15 b (new)
15b. Stresses the importance, with a view to reducing waste, of ensuring that food is distributed and kept using methods which are appropriate to each product’s characteristics;
Amendment 327 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 c (new)
Paragraph 15 c (new)
15c. Calls on the Commission, the Member States and stakeholders to provide consumers with better information on methods for keeping and/or reusing products;
Amendment 332 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 d (new)
Paragraph 15 d (new)
15d. Stresses that recovering co- and by-products may be considered one way to combat food waste;
Amendment 334 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 e (new)
Paragraph 15 e (new)