Implementation of the EU Quality Policy: Case Study, Slovakia

Abstract

The European Union Quality policy promotes original and traditional agricultural and food products of high quality at the EU level. It aims at protecting the names of specific products to promote their unique characteristics, linked to their geographical origin, traditional know-how and local culture. In May 2020, the European Commission launched the EU-wide public consultation on its promotion policy for agricultural and food products to get feedback from citizens and stakeholders on the effectiveness, efficiency and relevance of the current measures, as well as their coherence with EU action in other areas and the added value of this kind of policy being implemented at the EU level. The article is focused on the evaluation effectiveness of the implementation of the EU Quality Policy in Slovakia, covering the territory of the whole country and the aim of this evaluation is to assess the level of awareness in Slovakia regarding the EU Quality policy implementation and the positive and negative experiences with its implementation at the national level. The evaluation period covers all 17 years of its implementation from its introduction in June 2003. Special attention is given to what needs to be done to improve its implementation in Slovakia and to increase the number of Slovak products holding this prestigious label. The main issue that came out of the evaluation process is very poor information on EU Quality Policy implementation in Slovakia. Currently, there is only a website run by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic. There is not much motivation for producers to have an interest in the registration process. Therefore, priority should be given to overcoming this.