By Richard Laming
Published in EUobserver, 25 January 2005
The full weight of European law is about to fall on the heads of the new member states that joined last year. The reason is that, on 1 May 2004 when they finally joined the European Union after years of negotiation and reform, they owned too much sugar.
No, you haven’t read that wrong. Owning too much sugar has become a reason to pay a fine.
The cause of the problem is the EU sugar regime, which allocates the right to sell sugar tocertain companies and guarantees them a minimum price for doing so.
It is an unusual application of the word “minimum” – the EU price is more than three timesthe price outside the EU. One of the consequences is that European consumers, andespecially poorer consumers, have to pay over the odds for a basic part of their diet.
Read the whole article at 050125sweettooth