Protecting consumers’ health through the provision of safe and healthy food is one of the top policy priorities of Germany’s EU Presidency.
The Council Presidency aims to ensure that a high level of food safety and quality assurance is maintained and to promote the importance of a healthy lifestyle with a balanced diet and ample physical activity as one of the best ways to prevent many chronic illnesses. Greater transparency in food labelling and high food standards are a key component of pro-active consumer protection policy.
Against this backdrop, the Council Presidency intends to push forward the package of recommendations on additives, flavourings and enzymes in food and if possible to enact it in law. The Presidency will begin consultations on the pending amendment of the Regulation on Novel Foods as soon as the Commission’s proposal is available.
Europe’s industrial and services society results in risks such as overweight and obesity, unhealthy eating habits, poor diets and a lack of physical activity. These risks have an effect on public health, on long-term costs to the health service and on indirect costs to the economy caused by lower productivity and loss of manpower. Overweight and obesity in children and teenagers is increasing for a number of different reasons.
Not least due to the demographic change, it is vital to have an able and willing labour force if we are to produce a competitive and sustainable basis for value creation in Europe.
Germany’s EU Presidency will step up promotion of healthy eating habits and physical activity with a range of activities targeting children and teenagers in particular. This decision comes in response to the experience gained with the EU Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health in 2005.
Using the outcome of the debate on the Green Paper on food, the European Commission will in the first half of 2007 present a White Paper containing a full nutrition strategy. This will enable the EU Presidency to give additional stimulus to this key policy sector.
