La riforma del regolamento sui Novel Food: alla ricerca di un impossibile equilibrio?

Regulation n. 258/97 of the European Parliament and the Council sets out the legal framework for the marketing of novel foods, i.e. foods which do not pertain to the traditional food habits of European citizens. Aiming at granting a high level of consumer protection and the functioning of the internal market, the Regulation provides a system of authorisation for the marketing of novel foods. However, the application of these rules highlights the critical issues of the system, such as the ambiguities of the notions, the slowness of the procedures and the tensions with the WTO legal order. These problems, together with the development of the modern technologies, determine the need for a reform. In 2008, the European Commission presented a proposal for a regulation which meant to clarify the definition of novel food, to centralise the system of authorisation and to reform the rules for foods imported from third countries. However, during the legislative procedure, the Parliament and the Council stood opposite on key issues of the proposal, in particular on cloning. Therefore, the procedure failed during the conciliation procedure at the third reading. Later, in 2013, the Commission presented a new proposal, isolating the issue of animal cloning from the novel food regulation. Although it is mainly based on the common positions in the conciliation procedure, this proposal may create new tensions between the institutions, in the light of the dynamics and the problems.