The cost of official food inspection controls could be borne by restaurateurs and catering food operators, if a proposal tabled by the European Commission for a revision of the regulation on official controls in the food chain is approved. According to the existing Regulation 882/2004 on official controls, there is no obligation for national control authorities to charge fees for food inspections in restaurants. This allows for the current situation whereby, contrary to some other EU countries (like Sweden, Belgium and Finland), the Maltese Food Health Inspectorate does not levy charges for carrying out what is essentially a public service.

However, the Commission proposal for a new regulation abolishes the freedom allowed to member states’ food health inspectorate authorities with regard to whether inspection fees should be charged or otherwise to restaurateurs. The proposed new regulation not only abolishes this freedom, in clear contravention of the subsidiarity principle, but it also provides that national authorities should have an obligation to collect fees from all food business operators, in order to recover the costs of official controls.

The proposed new regulation is in clear contravention of the subsidiarity principle

Maltese business strongly opposes this proposal since the introduction of a mandatory system of inspection fees will inevitably generate a new direct financial burden to the local hospitality industry at a time when all stakeholders should be focused on facilitating even further the buoyant performance of the sector.

The potential introduction of mandatory food inspection fees would also generate an inflationary impact along the entire food supply chain since the additional costs will ultimately be also transmitted down the chain to suppliers of food products, thereby contributing to a higher retail bill to the consumers.

The obligation to collect fees also runs counter to the very notion that food inspectorate authorities are there to deliver a public service, which should be therefore primarily financed via general taxation schemes and not through an additional government revenue stream at the expense of food business operators.

Besides the clear concern about the financial impact of mandatory fee inspections, Maltese business is once again being confronted by another EU initiative that runs counter to the principle of subsidiarity and critically to the much-vaunted Better Regulation Agenda. An EU-wide obligation to charge fees for food inspection in restaurants would contradict the principle of subsidiarity given that restaurants provide only local services with no impact whatsoever on EU cross-border trade. The fact that national authorities in some member states charge inspection fees in restaurants, while authorities in other member states do not, has absolutely no bearing on the European Single Market.

Equally regrettable is that the Commission proposal failed to identify the costs to hospitality business fuelling further the feeling among local economic operators that the Better Regulation Agenda is nothing more than lip service. The MBB augurs that the co-legislative procedure will at least redress this grave shortcoming and provide the necessary deliberations on the critical issue of additional induced costs to food business operators as a result of mandatory food inspection fees.

For more information on EU business affairs, contact the Malta Business Bureau on info@mbb.org.mt or telephone 2125 1719.

Omar Cutajar is the MBB permanent delegate in Brussels.