School Fruit Scheme, Ministers Protest Budget

90 million Euro is the yearly budget earmarked by Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel proposal for the voluntary programme offering free fresh fruit and vegetables to millions of schoolchildren, as a way to promote healthy eating and tackle child obesity.

 

However the initiative, recently discussed by EU ministers, has encountered some resistance as EU Countries should then match the amount of cash they receive from Brussels.

Many of the EU’s 27 Countries - notably Denmark, Spain, Belgium, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Finland and Slovakia - want to see more money ploughed into the scheme, and a handful - like Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands and Czech Republic - were even more reticent.

 

According to the proposal the EU would cover 50% of the costs, percentage rising to 75% for economically poorer regions. Countries would be able to top up the cash spent on their national plans.

Many EU Countries already have fairly successful subsidised fruit and vegetable programmes in schools but others, such as in Central and Eastern Europe, lack such schemes.