SMEs claim role in the fight against obesity[fr] 

Taking the floor on 9 October 2007 at a Friends of Europe  lunch debate on the food industry's ideas for making healthy options available, Dr. Ludger Fischer, representing the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (UEAPME), heavily criticised the Commission for having kicked the organisation out of the obesity platform and for failure to respond to the organisation's repeated demands to be re-accepted as a member of the platform. 

"We were kicked out six months after the launch of the platform in March 2005, because we couldn't showcase any commitments in the fight against obesity as the big food companies have done," said Fischer. "However, individual butchers and bakers have a role to play at local level. Together, SMEs can make more than one million individual actions, in addition to the 200 or so taken by the big food companies," he added, arguing that a balanced diet comes from variety of food, which can only be guaranteed by SMEs.

Commissioner Kyprianou's spokesman Philip Tod cofirmed that UEAPME's membership of the platform was suspended in spring 2006, "as they did not provide either a record of their actions prior to membership to contribute to the fight against obesity (the so-called baseline commitments), or a set of commitments for actions that they would undertake in the future which went beyond the baseline commitments. UEAPME was informed by letter in February 2006, and have not provided either of these elements since then." 

"It is clear that SMEs have a clear role to play in addressing obesity and no doubt the Platform would consider UEAPME's request to be reinstated if they are able to provide the required baseline and commitment information. 

However, Sabine Nafziger from the Confederation of the Food and Drink Industries of the EU (CIAA), said that the confederation, which is an active member of the platform, had SME members and therefore represents their views as well. 

In response to the European Consumer Organisation's (BEUC) criticism of the EU strategy on nutrition, overweight and obesity-related health issues, adopted in May 2007, (see EurActiv 30 May 2007), Basil Mathioudakis, head of the Commission's unit on food law, nutrition and labelling, argued that "the White Paper [on obesity] is not unambitious, unfair nor minimalist. It reflects feasibility of things." 

He also added that the White Paper respects the Commission's policy on better regulation and reminded that it is, in parallel, accompanied by legislative measures on health claims and nutrition labelling, for example.

Asked how the Commission plans to monitor the success of industry self-regulation between now and 2010, Mathioudakis said that the Commission had not come into any conclusion on the evaluation criteria yet. "We don't expect any results overnight," he said, adding, however, that if in two to three years' time no results can be seen, the Commission will "abandon the [self-regulation] exercise".