Source: European Parliament
Question for written answer E-002004/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Ana Miranda Paz (Verts/ALE)
As a Galician MEP, I wish to highlight that Article 35 of the Common Market Organisation (CMO) Regulation for fishery and aquaculture products[1] requires all fishery and aquaculture products to be labelled with ‘the area where the product was caught or farmed’. There is an exemption from the obligation to provide information about the origin for prepared or preserved crustaceans, molluscs and other aquatic invertebrates. This exemption, detailed in the annex to the regulation, presents challenges for EU producers who must compete with imported products that are not subject to the same production standards.
At present, a canned product can be labelled as originating from an EU country if it undergoes processing in the EU, irrespective of the origin of its ingredients. This situation misleads consumers and creates an unfair competitive disadvantage affecting local shellfish producers, such as Galician mussel producers.
In the framework of the ongoing evaluation of the CMO Regulation for fishery and aquaculture products:
- 1.Is the Commission aware of the impact that the current exemption from mandatory origin labelling for canned molluscs has on EU aquaculture farmers?
- 2.Does the Commission plan to revise the CMO provisions to ensure that the labelling clearly indicates the origin of all canned fishery and aquaculture products, including prepared or preserved crustaceans, molluscs and other aquatic invertebrates?
Submitted: 19.5.2025
- [1] Regulation (EU) No 1379/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 on the common organisation of the markets in fishery and aquaculture products, amending Council Regulations (EC) No 1184/2006 and (EC) No 1224/2009 and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 104/2000 (OJ L 354, 28.12.2013, p. 1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2013/1379/oj).