EU launches free-fruit drive for schoolchildren

EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has unveiled plans to give schoolchildren free fruit to combat obesity. She launched the drive at an EU summit in the German city of Mainz. The scheme, which is expected to cost 100 million euros a year, would be jointly financed by the EU and member states. Child obesity is on the increase, especially in Italy, Spain and Portugal, where one in three children are now overweight.

Source: Radio Netherlands, 21 May 2007