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8. LEGISLATION

The activity in the sphere of legislation was also very extensive and important this year. Several very important laws and implementing regulations were commented from the point of view of not creating legal barriers in the area of non-harmonized sphere, which is highly stressed by the EU bodies.

The most important legislative work focused especially on the creation of a new law on viniculture and wine production, and an amendment to the law on foodstuffs and tobacco products, and also an amendment to the Act on the CAFIA.

Act on viniculture and wine production

The proposal of the new Act on viniculture and wine production is drawn up as a national legal framework within the Regulation of the EC Council and Commission, which is applicable directly in the member countries. Compared to the current legislature, the Act contains several essential changes. These include namely an introduction of a new wine type, which is classified as “guild-appraised wine” whose classification is decided upon by the guild of local wine growers not the administrative body, then, an introduction of a vineyard registry, where all data on growers and wine products will be kept, and keeping of register books.

Foodstuff Act

The proposed amendment to Act No. 110/1097 Coll., on foodstuffs and tobacco products, as amended, reacts to the changes in the food law of the European Community. The basic aim of the amendment is to adapt this Act to the conditions, which will be applicable from the accession of the CR to the EU. The legal amendment proposed is also closely related to the origination of the European Food Safety Authority, creating at the same time a legal basis for a nationwide system of fast alert if a threat to the people’s health occurs from food or raw materials, and coordinating the activities of the administrative bodies, supervisory bodies and other organizations involved.

The amendment contains several new duties for the persons controlled and re-defines certain terms used as well. For example, it newly defines an operator of a food company as a legal or natural person who produces food or tobacco products or puts them into circulation. An operator of a food company is obliged to notify a supervisory body about the commencement and termination of his or her activity. So far, this obligation only applied to producers or importers, not e.g. sellers. There are also new duties imposed on operators of irradiation facilities and their technical equipment. Another significant novelty is also an introduction of a new legal concept, so-called “mutual recognition clause”, which incorporates a basic principle of free goods movement into the Act. According to this principle, foodstuffs produced and put into circulation in a EC member country or originating in one of the EC countries which is also a contractual party of the EEA (European Economic Area), must not be rejected to be introduced into circulation in the CR; provided that the foodstuff complies with the national regulations of given country or national production principles and rules of good production practice.

Implementing regulations

In the framework of legislative activities, many proposals were discussed to amend the implementing regulations mainly of the Act on food and tobacco products as regards individual commodities. As regards other implementing regulations, significant deeds were especially discussions of amendments to the regulation on the method of critical control point establishment in production technology, and a proposal of a new regulation on the methods of testing and methods of sampling and preparation of control samples.

Technical standardisation committees

The CAFIA staff actively participated in the work of technical standardisation committees (hereinafter TSC), established at the Czech Standards Institute (TSC No. 116 Foodstuffs and TSC No. 6 Quality Management). The CAFIA is also participates on a regular basis in commenting procedures to the proposals of the Czech technical standards that are newly created and introduced in the CR. In 2003, the CAFIA commented on a total of 43 standards, 34 of which concerned the methods of testing, and 9 standards were related to the subject of our activities.