European apiculture. Discussion paper

In this discussion paper, which starts by describing the situation of beekeepers in Europe (production, trade, consumption, market access, support measures, difficulties and demands of the industry), the Commission concludes that, with the current state of the sector throughout the European Union and current know-how on beekeeping, there is no need for a new organization of the market specifically for honey. Nor is it possible to invent a global support system such as general income support. However, apart from taking recourse to structural instruments, a set of measures could be proposed to improve the production and marketing of honey in the medium term under a framework Council regulation making provision for: - production conditions to be improved: the purpose of this measure would be to cofinance national programmes through organizations of producers in order to improve the sector by coordinating the fight against varroa mite and associated diseases, rationalizing migratory beekeeping and networking regional beekeeping centres and research institutes in order to improve the quality of honey and the genetics of bees; - studies, to be carried out by the Member States, on the structure of the sector (production and marketing census, price-formation). In addition to this programme, the Commission will design measures to enable the industry to implement a quality policy, mainly by: - defining quality specifications for different honeys based on their botanic or geographical origin; - designing harmonized analyses for checking these specifications.�