V4 demands that EU take action on double standards in food quality

The Prime Ministers of the Visegrad Group nations, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Czechia, urged the European Commission to fight double standards of food quality. After several studies have shown that many of the foods sold by multinational producers in eastern Europe contain cheaper, lower-quality ingredients than the identically branded versions sold in the west. “When we talk about the dual quality of products, people think they did not lose just money, they feel they lost justice,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said. EU commissioners Vera Jourova and Vytenis Andriukaitis agreed that the customers should not be misled, but did not pledge that the products would have the same ingredients EU-wide. The EU officials said that the current EU laws prohibits “marketing of identically branded products in a way that has a potential to mislead consumers.” But CEE nations want more. “The current EU law does not allow for proper prosecution of misleading practice. We need to change it,” said Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka.