In October 2011, Renato Pichler, President of the EVU, reported that the French government's Décret 2011-1227 and associated Arrêté effectively outlaws the serving of vegan meals at any public or private school in France. Similar decrees are proposed for kindergartens, hospitals, prisons and retirement homes.
Purpose
The main activities of the EVU are:
To support and represent member societies on a European level, and to offer a platform for close cooperation;
To raise public awareness of, and promote vegetarianism, vegetarian issues and the benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle;
To lobby governments, European institutions and organisations for greater recognition of vegetarian issues in policy decisions; and
To further promote the successful V-label scheme, in the interest of all vegetarian and vegan consumers across Europe and the rest of the world. The V-Label is a standardised European vegetarian label from the EVU with the aim of easy identification of vegetarian products and services.
Labeling Issues
As the demand for vegan and vegetarian products in Europe has continued to rise, the European Vegetarian Union has tried to define how to label "vegetarian" and "vegan" items. They have argued that the vegan label on a product should have a clear and standard meaning. They have put forth 2 main requirements:
"The deliberate use of non-vegan or non-vegetarian substances must be ruled out."
"The presence of inadvertent traces of non-vegan or non-vegetarian substances should not be an obstacle to labelling a product as vegan or vegetarian, provided that such contamination occurs despite a careful production process that complies with the best practices and the state of the art."
Despite the organization's efforts, the European Commission initially refused to enact any changes. The EVU has continued to lobby state governments, especially in Germany because the country experienced more widespread support for the labeling legislation. As a result, "consumer protection ministers of German Länder unanimously agreed on a proposal for a wording of the definition of the terms “vegan” and “vegetarian” for food labelling and put it into effect for the food control authorities within their jurisdictions, making it de facto binding." A recent 2018 report predicts that "vegan" and "vegetarian" labels will be required to meet the EVU's criteria by the year 2020.
