Review of the school distribution programmes in the area of agriculture : initial appraisal of a European Commission impact assessment

This note seeks to provide an initial analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the European Commission's Impact Assessment (IA) accompanying the proposal on the aid scheme for the supply of fruit and vegetables, bananas and milk in the educational establishments. Overall, the IA appears to be well documented and researched. However, potential downsides to the various options could have been more fully examined and stakeholder positions and concerns more adequately presented and taken into consideration. More generally, the conclusion that there is a necessity to act now, before the changes brought by the CAP 2020 agreement are implemented and evaluated, would have benefited from further explanation and evidence. This note, prepared by the Ex-Ante Impact Assessment Unit for the Committee on Agriculture of the European Parliament, analyses whether the principal criteria laid down in the Commission's own Impact Assessment Guidelines, as well as additional factors identified by the Parliament in its Impact Assessment Handbook, appear to be met by the IA.