The committee adopted the report by Michel DARY (PES, F) amending the proposal under the consultation procedure. It welcomed the proposal and believed it would help consumers make sense of the mass of information - mostly in the form of advertising - that they were faced with. However, it tabled some amendments to clarify and improve certain aspects of the regulation. The committee wanted production methods and local and regional specialities to be included in the policy and measures for products from the Community's most remote regions to be funded in full by the Community. It also wanted the Community's contribution to the cost of measures to tackle crises in individual sectors increased. The committee felt that the EU should make maximum use of the scope under WTO rules for promotional polices and asked the Commission to explore the possibility of increasing the budget for promotion measures if export credits were reduced or abolished (under future WTO agreements). It believed the products and themes for the promotion measure should be selected every two years, rather than every three years, and wanted an evaluation report by 31 December 2003 (not 2004) and every two years thereafter. Lastly, it called for the entry into force of the regulation to be put back from 1 January 2001 because the implementing rules would not have been adopted by then.
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