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The Quality Package comprises:
• A proposal for a new 'Agricultural Product Quality Schemes Regulation', bringing coherence and clarity to the EU schemes: reinforcing the flagship scheme for protected designations of origin and geographical indications (PDOs and PGIs); overhauling the traditional specialities guaranteed scheme (TSGs), and laying down a new framework for the development of Optional Quality Terms to provide consumers with information they increasingly demand, such as 'free range'' and 'first cold pressing'.
• A proposal to streamline adoption of marketing standards by the Commission, including the power to extend place of farming labelling in accordance with the specificity of each agricultural sector.
• New Guidelines on best practices for voluntary certification schemes and on the labelling of products using geographical indications as ingredients.
The Quality Package is the first step in the overhaul agricultural product quality policy. It is the result of 3 years of extensive consultation and participation of stakeholders. It opens the way to a more coherent agricultural product quality policy. For the future, the Commission announced its intention to study further the problems faced by small-scale producers in participating in EU quality schemes as well as by mountain producers to market their products and to propose additional follow-up o the basis of this analysis, if necessary.
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/10/1692&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
