The European Commission has invited the views of consumers, producers and retailers involved in the food and beverage industries on whether or not public intervention on packaging size is justified.

The Commission feels that the regulations governing packaging size, which have been in force for nearly 30 years, should be reconsidered. Many industry players believe that the laws governing this area are over-regulated and out-of-date.

The Commission has launched two complementary online consultations: a survey questionnaire and a public discussion forum. A working paper is also provided, to guide the debate. Both consultations can be accessed either at Your Voice in Europe or at the Enterprise Pack size pages . They will be open until 31 January 2003. Contributions may be made in all 11 official EU languages.

The review of EU pack-size legislation is one of the proposals selected to undergo extended impact assessment under the Legislative and Work Programme for 2003, and is part of the Commission's aims toward better regulation and the new procedure for assessing the impact of legislation.

The survey findings and discussion outcome will be presented during the first half of 2003 and fed into the assessment process. The Commission will consider its proposal in the light of the findings and discussion.