Hearing of Minister Sándor Fazekas in the European Parliament

Mr Fazekas stressed that one of the Hungarian Presidency’s priorities is to get closer to a resource efficient low-carbon economy, in-line with the Europe 2020 Strategy’s objectives. “There is a need to make agricultural policy greener, reduce the administrative burdens of farmers, and to provide transparency to the subsidy system. The Hungarian Presidency is going to make the Council adopt conclusions on the importance of biodiversity in accordance with the Nagoya Protocol, and will give priority to water and waste management”, said Mr Fazekas and added, “...the Hungarian Presidency wishes to continue the negotiations on the regulation which would allow member states to ban the cultivation of genetically modified plants in their areas where appropriate.”

The Hungarian Presidency pays special attention to the regulation under preparation which updates the rules of customer information on food, requires the mandatory labelling of nutritional values and to indicate possible allergies.

The Hungarian Presidency has proposed an amendment to the Fruit Juice Directive. The new provision would make a distinction between squeezed and concentrated fruit juice, and ban the use of sugar in fruit juice production. The Hungarian Presidency also wants to continue the dialogue concerning EU legislation on animal cloning.

Back