Olive oil and table olives: common organisation of the market CMO (amend. Regulation (ECC) No 827/68 and repeal. Regulation No 14)

The committee adopted the report by Vincenzo LAVARRA (PES, I) amending the proposal under the consultation procedure: - the production and marketing of mixtures of any type of oils or fats with olive oils should be prohibited; - it should be prohibited to use the words 'olive oil', or "any other term or image that suggests that product, the olive tree or any of its parts" on labelling or consumer information for products derived from any mixture of vegetable oils; - the origin of 'virgin' and 'extra virgin' olive oils, determined on the basis of the country in which the olives were harvested, rather than that in which the oil was produced, should be indicated on the label; - the proposed threshold price which automatically triggers the private storage procedure should be increased; - a production refund system should operate for olive oil used for the processing of canned fish, given that such refunds help to ensure that the canning industries can compete in the market; - producers' organisations should not be assigned market supervision and monitoring duties, which should remain the responsibility of the existing national supervisory bodies in close cooperation with the competent Community authorities; - like other agricultural sectors, the olive oil sector should have a transitional period before the new arrangements come into effect. MEPs therefore called for the new scheme to apply from the 2006/07 marketing year, rather than the 2004/05 marketing year as proposed by the Commission. �