Background and Commission proposal
Nearly 30 million European school children benefit each year from two separate EU-funded programmes: the School Milk Scheme (set up in 1977) and the School Fruit Scheme (2009). While both aim at promoting healthy eating among children in a context of declining fruit, vegetable and milk consumption and rising obesity rates, they operate under different financial and legal set-ups.
On 30 January 2014, the European Commission published a legislative proposal to merge the two programmes under Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 on a single Common Market Organisation, within a joint financial and operational framework, in order to increase efficiency and reduce the administrative burdenfor national and local authorities. The proposal reinforces the educational aspects of the scheme and seeks to better address poor nutrition and excessive weight among children, with a budget of €230 million per school year (€150 million for fruit and vegetables and €80 million for milk).
In December 2014, the incoming Commission asked both Parliament and Council to put on hold their work on the proposal while an evaluation was conducted as part of the EU´s common agricultural policy (CAP) simplification process.
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Full information available via the link below.
See also: Reformed scheme for fruit and milk in schools [Plenary Podcast]
Source: europarl.europa.eu
