03/06/2016

Luis González Vaqué: EU Regulation of nutrition labelling: An irreversible factor in the deterioration of the Single food market?





On 19 May 2015 the European Commission adopted a Communication entitled “Better regulation for better results - An EU agenda”. This comprehensive package of reforms, known as the Better Regulation Agenda, covers the entire policy cycle. It will hopefully boost openness and transparency in the EU decision-making process, improve the quality of new laws through better impact assessments of draft legislation and amendments; it is furthermore expected to lead to the constant and consistent review of existing EU laws, so that EU policies achieve their objectives in the most effective and efficient way.

This is not the first time the Commission has set itself such goals, even if so far the “quality” of Community legislation has only deteriorated - especially when it comes to Food Law. So while there is no doubting the political will to improve future European Union (EU) legislation, the main question remains whether the Communication’s pledge to take on board “lessons learned from implementing a policy through better monitoring and evaluation [that] may also provide fresh evidence about which policy solution is the best” will be reflected in practice.

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