The Farm to Fork Strategy seeks to transform the EU food system towards greater sustainability. To do this, argues Vincent Delhomme, some of the traditional concepts and doctrines in EU internal market law need to be challenged and rethought.
On 25 May 2023, Vincent Delhomme participated as a speaker to the conference The Future of Food Law, organised by the Law Group at Wageningen University & Research. This two-day conference provided an opportunity to rethink the legal architecture of the EU food system, its constitutional foundation(s) and applicable legal frameworks.
Vincent stressed the need to see the internal market as an auxiliary to the sustainable food transition, rather than an obstacle. To do this, some old concepts and doctrines of EU internal market law need to be interrogated and possibly reconsidered. In his presentation, Vincent focused on four specific aspects: the applicability of the free movement of goods, Article 34 TFEU in particular, to private parties; the use of origin labelling by Member States and its status under the same provision; the application of proportionality by the Court of Justice; and, finally, the role of the EU's legislative competence to enact (minimum) harmonisation measures.
