A European Commission meeting will be held today to discuss the future of the European-wide School Fruit Scheme (SFS), with the very real threat to discontinue support or change the way it is run, according to Freshfel's director of nutrition, health and promotion Raquel Izquierdo de Santiago.

Killing off the European SFS just five years into its vital work to reverse the decline in fresh fruit consumption would be 'completely short-sighted', Izquierdo de Santiago tells www.freshfruitportal.com.

Raquel Izquierdo de Santiago

The data speaks for itself. Fewer children across Europe are eating fresh fruit and vegetables and on top of this, eating habits amongst European kids and their parents are in dire straits.

Why then is the Commission considering 'better regulation' of the SFS that has, so far, been successful in promoting the virtues of fresh fruit and vegetables and pushing to improve the eating habits of young people?

European fruit and vegetable organization Freshfel is part of a coalition of public health bodies that believes there is a very real threat to the scheme, which if scrapped, would have dramatic consequences for the old continent.

"If you think about it the SFS has been in place for five years which is not very long and when it was initially set up, the Agriculture Commissioner at the time, Danish politician Mariann Fischer Boel, said the objective of this scheme was long-term. We are talking about improving the eating habits of school kids and promoting fruit and vegetables. This is something that doesn’t happen within five years.

"When a new Commissioner comes in they have the right, because of what they call political discontinuity, to look into all of the proposals that are still on the table and decide which ones still make sense and which ones can be dropped.

"Previously there was a proposal to merge the SFS with the school milk scheme which has been held off for the moment and the Commission wants to firstly evaluate the SFS in terms of proportionality and subsidiarity."

Since its inception the SFS program has already been evaluated by an agency commissioned by the EC and the European Court of Auditors, with positive feedback affirming the successes of the work carried out so far.

"These evaluations have always been very positive in all of the terms regarding the scheme and besides the evaluations, a group of experts was set up in order to look at the program and to make sure all of the measures were proper.

"So we have the feeling that for such a young scheme there has already been so much evaluation done in this context that it seems a bit surprising that it needs to be evaluated again. We understand the evaluation is not regarding the substance of the program itself that is not being questioned, because it obviously does have an effect on improving kids’ eating habits.

"However, we feel that it has been evaluated enough times and therefore if this evaluation is now taking place, we take it as a clear signal that there is a very high danger that the aim of this evaluation is to simply stop the program, at least on the European level."

The fear is that the EC will pull or change its €90-150 million (US$102-170 million) contribution (0.25% of the EU agricultural budget) which would lead to the scheme collapsing in many of the 24 member states where it operates.

"We fear it will look at the subsidiarity principle and suggest the program would be better run at a national level and there should not be EU contribution to it.

"We are certain that, with very few exceptions, like the U.K. that already had a school scheme in place so they never participated in the EU program, if the EU steps out the program will automatically stop in many of the countries that are now running it.

"If you think of the success that of 28 member states, 24 had immediately put the scheme in place demonstrating that demand is high, so again we have clear signals that there is a high risk that if the EU steps out the program is just going to fall apart."

Long term consequences of children with obesity

The crunch meeting will happen against a backdrop of increasing numbers of European children with weight issues and bad eating habits.

Izquierdo de Santiago believes that diets are at the core of this problem and the long-term benefits of maintaining the SFS for years to come far outweigh scrapping or changing the scheme.

"With regards to proportionality, which is the other principle the Commission is going to look at, we feel that if you see the number of overweight and obese children and knowing that diet is at the core of this problem, and that fruit and vegetables are the identified category that can help improve the health of these children, we feel the investment of this program is perfectly proportionate and could actually be much higher.

"In addition, the social security cost in terms of treating obesity and the diseases related to bad diet should also be considered.

"We also feel that maybe because it is such a tiny part of the agricultural budget that it’s so much easier to target these types of projects and evaluate them a million times and get rid of them. If we were talking about an enormous budget we may be better considered, which seems very unfair."

What’s expected at today's meeting?

This meeting is part of the Commission's evaluation and it’s an opportunity to bring together member state representatives, stakeholders as well as other agricultural organizations and health associations.

"It’s a high level meeting where the Commission is looking for input. This meeting is an opportunity for people to contribute to questions that are raised and to present the arguments that we all have in order to defend the program.

"I don’t know exactly what is going to happen as it’s not a meeting where decisions will be made. What I know is that the Commission would like to have the evaluation finished by the end of March so things will move quite quickly. Once the evaluation is finished we will see the suggestion of the Commission.

"Meantime we are keeping some of the MEPs informed of our actions. We know there is quite a consistent group of Parliamentarians who are quite supportive of the program and I think they will also support that is stays in place and we are hoping they will be able to input questions as they have the right to ask questions to the Commission."

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