Of all the EU’s east-west divides — on refugees, the rule of law, and free movement — perhaps none is as peculiar or as longstanding as the “dual food quality” row.
Europe’s smaller central and eastern member states have long complained they have been cheated into buying sub-standard goods — like chocolate spread, fish fingers and washing powder — compared to their western peers under the same labels and packaging.
But where Brussels could recently be accused of bending to the will of its bigger governments (eg with France on posted workers) or riding roughshod over its eastern member states (on migrant quotas) — it’s deadly serious about sorting out the food fight.
“Slovaks do not deserve less fish in their fish fingers. Hungarians less meat in their meals. Czechs less cacao in their chocolate”, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker railed in his state of the union speech last September — calling for an end to a Europe of “second class consumers”.
The commission is now backing its words with legislative action and is cooking up a plan to ban “dual food” products from being sold in the EU. It would force a company selling a different ratio of fish meat in their fish fingers in say Germany compared to Hungary, to brand the goods as two totally different products.
The regulation will be presented as part of a revamp of Brussels’ unfair consumer practices later on Wednesday. But the dual food row might not end there.
Vera Jourova, the EU’s Czech commissioner for consumers, is the biggest cheerleader for a ban — in part because the Czech Republic is one of the countries that feels most cheated by the “scandal”. Yet not everyone in the commission is quite as convinced.
For one, evidence of mass mis-selling of goods in the former Soviet bloc countries is pretty patchy. That’s one of the reasons why the commission will set up a research lab this year to test commonly complained about foodstuffs to see if there really is a difference. The more pro-business parts of commission would rather wait and see the results before asking companies to change their production methods.
But with time running out for the Juncker presidency, one EU official expects internal opposition to be overcome when commissioners meet to discuss the package later on Wednesday. To put it simply: proposing a ban on dual quality foods is a relatively easy move for a commission eager to heel rifts with central and eastern member states after a series of skirmishes.
As another official puts it: “It’s a symbolic move regardless of the evidence and a way to reach out to smaller countries who think the EU is just a club for big member states”.
Chart du jour: Lies, damn lies, and Brexit
Brexit is getting real. As of this week, the EU’s official stats body will start publishing key numbers from the EU27 — excluding the UK. The chart above shows Europe’s GDP per capita with the UK stripped out (the line in pink). Without Britain, the EU’s economy is 13 per cent smaller. Eurostat said it made the shift on the back of “users’ requests”. You can see the new databases for the EU27 here.
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A contrite Mark Zuckerberg will have delighted EU officials in his testimony to US lawmakers on Tuesday night, admitting that on some things, European regulation “gets things right”. “The Zuck” was referring to new EU-wide privacy regulations which Facebook has said it will now roll-out to all users after a privacy breach that has probably affected 87m users. The FT’s Barney Jopson reports on the Facebook founder’s (light) grilling before the Senate.
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‘Orbanistan’
Neil Buckley reports on the closure of one of Hungary’s best known newspapers after 80-years — raising more fears about the state of independent media in the country. The EU’s centre-right family is also coming under pressure to disavow Viktor Orban after his third straight election win at the weekend. Cas Mudde, an academic expert on populism, writes to Dutch conservatives — who rule in coalition with Mark Rutte — to cut Mr Orban and his “illiberal kleptocracy” loose (NRC).
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Brexit big bang?
Prepare for hundreds of British trade negotiators to appear in Brussels soon (potentially with a lot of spare time on their hands). The Times reports that David Davis, the Brexit secretary, has won a first-round battle with Olly Robbins, the top Downing Street negotiator, over how detailed an agreement on future EU relations they should aim for before Brexit. One potential hitch: the EU side don’t look like they want that intensity of engagement quite yet.
Excluding the fringes
Should there be a minimum vote-share threshold to exclude small parties securing seats in the European Parliament? Marc Peeperkorn of Volkskrant reports on the (protracted) discussions between member states, which are now looking at a compromise proposal for a 2 per cent bar. Belgium still has issues.
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The former French president François Hollande is publishing his book on Wednesday, and he doesn’t seem too impressed by the “monarchical” instincts of his successor (and former protégé). Le Monde has more.
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