Czechia: quota on Czech products rejected
In Czechia, following the Senate's rejection in March to require supermarkets to sell a minumum amount of national produced food, also the Parliament voted to remove the measure from a bill on food quality.
The European Commission has said in an earlier stage that the situation was being “monitored very closely” and that initiatives by member states to support local products “cannot be done in a discriminatory way.” A potential conflict with the European Commission on this issue has now been avoided since the Lower House approved a Senate version of a Food Act bill that included an amendment abolishing quotas, which had been placed in the legislation when lawmakers first voted in January.
In the initial proposal it required food stores of more than 400 square meters to sell a mandatory minimum share of food products made in the Czech Republic, starting in 2022.
The overall bill is aimed at preventing double standards in food, contending that inferior food products unwanted by consumers in richer Western EU states were being sold in poorer markets.
source: Reuters, Euractiv