The contributors included Member States, farmers groups and agricultural organisations, processors, retailers, NGOs, one university, one trade union and one trader.
The Commission's initial analysis (the so-called inception impact assessment) published on 25 July laid out four policy options with their likely impact without prejudice to the ongoing online public consultation opened on 16 August.
Feedback on the four options was open for feedback online from 25 July to 22 August. 67 contributions were submitted, a record in terms of reaction to inception impact assessments.
Commenting on the feedback's outcome, Commissioner for Agriculture & Rural Development, Phil Hogan said: "I view these findings as very encouraging in the context of the Commission's drive to strengthen the position of the farmer in our EU food supply chain. The findings reflect the reality that every significant stakeholder bar retailers is in favour of action at EU level to bring more fairness and balance to our food supply chain.
A strong coalition of policymakers and stakeholders now favours defending and developing a well-functioning and coherent internal market, to cover the whole EU food supply chain. We are now moving to the next step of drafting a legislative proposal. It is my sincere hope that all the stakeholders who recognise the problem will also proactively support the potential solution."
The ongoing public consultation and the inception impact assessment draw on the work of the Agricultural Markets Task Force (AMTF) set up by Commissioner Hogan in January 2016. The AMTF suggested a number of concrete ways to strengthen the position of farmers in the food supply chain, and the consultation will build on this work to inform the Commission's potential future work.
A full impact assessment will also be carried out on any future initiative to improve the food supply chain. Any future proposals from the Commission will also be coherent with the broader approach to simplify and modernise the Common Agricultural Policy.
Via europa.eu
