Regulation (EU) 2016/791

What it is

to establish a common legal and financial framework for the distribution of fruit and vegetables and milk to children in schools. PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council. ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council. BACKGROUND: the School Milk Scheme and the School Fruit Scheme have developed independently and in different time periods: the School Milk Scheme has been implemented since 1977, and the School Fruit Scheme came out of a political commitment in the context of the 2007 reform of the Common Market Organisation for fruit and vegetables. The current schemes operate within different legal and financial frameworks, and have some important differences in their design and functioning. The Commission proposes changes to the programmes in order to make them more efficient, and better respond to the overarching problems of declining fruit and vegetable and milk consumption and rising obesity. The Greek Presidency of the Union highlights the progress achieved in the first half of 2014 on the proposals for regulations merging the schemes for the supply of fruit and vegetables, bananas and milk in schools. One of the proposals aims to streamline the existing schemes with a view to increasing their efficiency and effectiveness and reducing the administrative burden. The Presidency presented its report on the state of progress with the work on the Commission proposals for regulations merging the schemes for the supply of fruit and vegetables, bananas and milk in schools. 1) merger of proposals : most of the delegations considered that the choice of a merger of the two schemes was well-grounded and seems preferable to the option of adjusting to keep the current separate setting while strengthening the school milk scheme educational dimension and as well as the synergies between the two schemes; 2) legal basis of the proposals : the delegations unanimously supported the Council Legal Service's view that Article 43(3) TFEU – and not Article 43(2) TFEU - is the correct legal basis for the fixing of the level of aid; 3) the basic act and the delegated powers : many delegations voiced concerns on the overall balance between the basic act and delegated acts. They considered that some of the issues for which the Commission had proposed to be empowered to adopt delegated acts (for example, how the criteria for the allocation of funds would be applied or the conditions for the transfers of allocations between the two components of the scheme) were essential provisions to be regulated in the basic act. Delegations also pointed out that the issue of the legal basis has an impact on the general architecture of delegated and implementing acts of the proposal; 4) objective and the scope of the programme : in general, delegations shared the objective of merging the school schemes, thus increasing their efficiency and effectiveness and consolidating the legal and financial framework. They also confirmed the original objectives of the schemes, i.e., the promotion of the consumption of fruit, vegetables and…

Frequently asked