Time for the EU to accelerate action and deliver for the food and drink industry

Описание: One year since the European Commission launched the EU Vision for Agriculture and Food, how far has the Commission come in delivering on it?

Our Director General Nicholas Hodac reflects on this, making it clear that the agri-food needs to see words turned into real action without delay.

Specifically, the soft drinks sector urges the European Commission to deliver on its good intentions by putting concrete enablers in place that will help us to continue investing, innovating and generating jobs and value for Europe.

Our sector’s key policy asks are as follows:

➡️ ensuring evidence-based policies that promote fairness across the entire food supply chain, avoiding discrimination against any specific food, drink or ingredient, and recognising the importance of balanced diets and lifestyles.

➡️ removing outdated rules that lack technical or scientific justification, such as the 30% energy reduction rule restricting the use of low-/no-calorie sweeteners.

➡️ making laws simpler and clearer.

➡️ delivering clear secondary legislation and guidance on time.

#simplification #agrifood #competitiveness #jobs #growth #innovation #SoftDrinks #UNESDA

Transcription:

One year ago, Commissioner Hansen presented the EU Vision for Agriculture & Food - a bold plan to make the agri-food sector more competitive and innovative.

Now, intent must translate into action because our businesses need to keep supporting jobs, investing, and innovating. This is critical. The European soft drinks sector is a leading innovator and a key contributor to the European economy. We support over 1.8 million jobs and generate €242bn in revenues across our European supply chain. We’re a truly ‘Made in Europe’ sector: over 97% of our beverages are produced in Europe, and more than 85% of our ingredients are sourced from European farmers.
We’ve already started to see progress with the simplification omnibus packages. But the EU must move faster and put concrete enablers in place without delay.

To support this, our sector has identified a few top priorities to drive faster EU action:
• We’re calling for policies grounded in robust evidence, thoroughly assessed, that promote fairness across the food supply chain, and that recognise the importance of balanced diets and lifestyles.
• We’re also calling for the removal of outdated rules that lack technical or scientific justification, such as a rule which restricts the use of low-/no-calorie sweeteners. This is a major barrier to innovation and to further sugar reduction.
• At the same time, we’re calling on the EU to make environmental rules simpler, clearer and more coherent, without lowering its green ambition. Too often, the current legislation is vague. A good example is the exemption from the restriction on single-use grouped packaging for packaging ‘necessary to facilitate handling’, a term that is not defined anywhere.
• We also need the EU to deliver clear secondary legislation and guidance on time. Setting targets first and only defining how to measure them years later simply does not work, as the experience with the Single-Use Plastics Directive has shown. Businesses are willing to comply but they need clarity and predictability on how to meet the targets.

Our sector remains committed to delivering progress. We’ve consistently taken responsibility.

The EU asked us to reduce sugar — and we were already doing so for years and long before any soft drink taxes were introduced. We also accelerated reformulation and expanded consumer choice to further support balanced diets.

The EU asked us to become more sustainable — and we stepped up again. We continue to invest heavily in sustainable operations, in protecting water resources and nature and in efficient collection and waste management schemes to advance packaging circularity.

We’ve engaged, we’ve taken action, we’ve delivered, and we’ve often gone beyond both EU’s targets and our own voluntary commitments. Now it’s Europe’s turn to accelerate action and deliver.

We stand ready to keep engaging constructively and to keep doing our part. For a more competitive and innovative soft drinks sector. For a more competitive and innovative Europe. But 2026 needs to be the year when the EU delivers also on its promises.

About UNESDA Soft Drinks Europe:
Established in 1958, UNESDA Soft Drinks Europe is the Brussels-based trade association representing the non-alcoholic beverages sector. Its membership comprises 12 companies and 27 national associations from across Europe. UNESDA members are involved in the production and/or distribution of a wide variety of non-alcoholic beverages including still drinks, carbonated drinks, energy drinks, iced teas, flavoured waters and sports drinks. Visit the website: www.unesda.eu

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