Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on promotion measures and information provision for agricultural products: a reinforced value-added European strategy for promoting the tastes of Europe

The diversity and quality of agricultural production in the European Union are values known throughout the world. While the increasing globalisation of trade does present challenges, it also opens up new markets and new growth opportunities to be seized.

In this context, offering excellent products that meet stringent standards remains a priority but is no longer sufficient for durably securing a good position on the market. The very strong reputation of our regions and of our know-how must be consolidated and maximised further.

The European Union, which has extremely diverse, high-quality production and guarantees a high level of health security, has all the resources necessary to benefit from the projected growth of world demand as long as it highlights its strengths through a better targeted and more ambitious promotion policy. In addition, on the internal market, consumers should be made more aware of the quality and diversity of the available range of products.

The aim of the legislative proposals for the reform of the CAP post-2013 currently being negotiated is to enable this policy to contribute fully to the "Europe 2020" Strategy by supporting agriculture that guarantees food safety, the sustainable use of natural resources and the dynamism of rural areas as well as growth and employment. An efficient promotion policy is key to reaching these objectives.

With this in mind, in-depth discussions were launched in July 2011, including a public debate, with the adoption of a Green Paper on information provision and promotion measures for agricultural products to serve as a flagship measure to reinforce the competitiveness of EU agriculture. The reflections presented in this Communication are also based on the external evaluation report, prepared in 2011, on the present promotion policy.

EUR-Lex: COM(2012)148: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2012:148:FIN

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