Nicholas Hodac / Sep 2024
The coming months will be crucial for the future of the EU’s agri-food policies. There are encouraging signs that a renewed engagement approach with the agri-food industry is emerging, which recognises the fact that this industry matters to Europe’s competitiveness. It is unfortunate that the Draghi Report has overlooked this. The food and drink industry is the largest manufacturing sector in Europe and its strategic importance to strengthening Europe’s social and economic position worldwide should not be ignored.
It's promising that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had launched a Strategic Dialogue on the future of EU’s agriculture with a wide group of representatives from the agri-food community along with NGOs and consumer groups. This Strategic Dialogue has provided the European Commission with a balanced set of guiding political principles and recommendations on the future of farming and food in the EU which will feed into the Commission’s Vision for Agriculture and Food. We now await to see how these principles and recommendations will be implemented and interpreted and what the overall political direction will be over the next five years.
A key priority for policymakers should be to recognise the food and drink sector as a strategic pillar of Europe’s socio-economic prosperity, and sustainable leadership on the global scene. As part of this vital industry, the European soft drinks sector plays a critical role in supporting hundreds of thousands of farmers and other families locally while advancing environmental sustainability. We support over 1.8 million jobs across our value chain, and maintain a strong local presence by manufacturing 97% of our soft drinks within Europe and sourcing more than 85% of our ingredients from Europe as well. We therefore deserve to be considered and given the appropriate policy support.
What policy support does our sector need?
For many years, the European soft drinks sector has demonstrated leadership in promoting more sustainable and balanced diets in Europe and we remain committed to making a positive impact, as we outlined boldly in our 2024-2029 Manifesto.
We see the new EU legislative term as an opportunity to drive further progress and create a supportive regulatory framework. Here’s how:
- Ensuring Europe’s competitiveness is key to our sector’s sustainable growth
With more than 500 production facilities across Europe supporting over 1.8 million jobs, the European soft drink sector is a key player in the future of Europe.
Our contribution to the EU’s economy and society is nothing short of significant with our value chain estimated to be worth €242 billion annually. Therefore, staying a competitive sector is vital. To achieve this, policymakers should provide regulatory certainty and secure a strong single market at the heart of EU policy, with uniform implementation of EU food and environmental legislation. It is now time to prioritise the implementation of current legislation over new policies to provide businesses with legal predictability to incentivise investments.
- Supporting balanced diets through evidence-based policies and reliable EU-wide data
It is fundamental that policies are grounded in comparable, robust and EU-wide food and drink consumption data. Based on our own research, it is clear that existing food and drink consumption data is outdated and inappropriate to design effective policies. Establishing a robust and accurate dataset is critical to gain reliable insights into consumption patterns across Europe, thus ensuring informed decision-making.
Our sector stands firmly committed to encouraging Europeans towards balanced diets through our intensified efforts to reduce the average sugar content in our soft drinks, and not to market and advertise our beverages to children under 13. To support us in these actions, policymakers should promote balanced diets based on a multi-stakeholder approach and science-based policies that do not discriminate against ingredients approved as safe by health authorities, and which enable food innovation, such as low/no-calorie sweeteners. These ingredients provide a sweet taste with no or hardly any calories, making them an effective tool in helping consumers to manage their sugar intake.
- Driving environmental sustainability
To help protect the environment and reduce packaging waste, our sector is taking concrete steps in environmental stewardship throughout our value chain with a particular focus on reducing our carbon footprint, conserving water resources, improving energy efficiency and achieving packaging circularity.
Greater strides in these areas are possible with the support of policymakers for a proper and harmonised implementation of key environmental laws.
As a sector known for our proactive and constructive approach, we stand ready to engage with all stakeholders, and are prepared to work hand in hand with policymakers to ensure a stable and enabling regulatory environment that helps us drive meaningful change.
