European farming co-operatives union Copa-Cogeca has welcomed the release of the EU Commission's green paper on reforming the promotional policy of agricultural products, highlighting the broad range of topics that the paper addresses.

The document, for consultation with industry and stakeholders, presents a series of questions concerning reviews of actions on both external and internal markets, use of private brands, origin labelling and the reinforcement of a multi-member state approach, among other key issues.

In a statement, Copa-Cogeca said it believed improvements must be made to the policies included in the paper to make them more effective, with increased funding.

'Promotion of agricultural products is a key policy and has an important role to play in the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP),' said Pekka Pesonen, secretary general of Copa-Cogeca. 'In view of the challenges EU farmers and agri-cooperatives will be facing in future, it will be even more crucial to promote EU agricultural products on domestic and foreign markets, in order to inform consumers about the EU's high-quality goods and production standards.'

However, Pesonen added that this was only a complementary measure, and should not substitute for other instruments under the CAP, notably export refunds.

Christian Jochum, chairman of the Copa-Cogeca working party on promotion policy, insisted that the simplification of administrative procedures should be one of the major focuses of the reform.

'It must also highlight the high production standards which European agricultural products must comply with (production hygiene, plant health, animal health and welfare, pesticide residue control, veterinary medicine and additives and environmental standards),' he added. 'Furthermore, it should draw attention to the quality schemes in force in the EU.'

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