The European Commission puts new amendments on the table to overcome deadlock on Food for the Deprived scheme. The amendments proposed will add a second legal base, namely social cohesion, reflecting the scheme's important social dimension. Moreover, a further change is to remove the proposed provision for co-financing the scheme in future.

The Commission adopted a second amended proposal to provide an impetus for a political agreement and to allow the successful food distribution scheme to continue in 2012 and 2013, as well as in the future. The EU Aid for the Needy scheme provides food for as many as 18 million of the EU's most deprived citizens, faces a drastic cut in spending next year following a Court ruling in April. The amendments proposed will add a second legal base, namely social cohesion, reflecting the scheme's important social dimension and further change is to remove the proposed provision for co-financing the scheme in future.

In order to avoid a deadlock of the proposal, the Commission tabled two more amended proposals in 2008 and 2010, which have been backed by the European Parliament and a number of Member States. However, the dossier remains blocked since 21 of September 2011 when the Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting concluded with the doubt to reach a further agreement on the distribution of food products for the most deprived in the UE.

The EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, László Andor, showed himself confident that the new proposal will help avoid dramatic cuts in resources for organisations providing food to deprived people, because hunger in the European Union is simply not acceptable. For the longer term, the European Commission is also preparing a proposal to extend the programme beyond 2013. The Commission will propose, with effect from 2014, to incorporate the scheme among its EU social policy instruments with an allocation of €2.5 billion for the seven-year period, as outlined in the proposals for the post-2013 budget published in June.