Brussels, 25/11/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 24 November, the European Commission called on France to withdraw national measures that hamper the trade of goat or ewe's milk and milk products. The request takes the form of a “reasoned opinion” under EU infringement procedures, which means that, if there is no satisfactory response within two months, the Commission may decide to refer France to the European Court of Justice.
Scrapie is an incurable disease affecting the nervous system of sheep and goats. It is one of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE), the sheep and goat equivalent of BSE or “mad cow disease”, which is the most well-known and infamous TSE that affects cattle. Scrapie has been present in Europe for centuries.
Precautionary measures against scrapie were initially taken during the BSE crisis due to the fact that the scrapie agent was related to that of BSE. The Commission states that although “some certainties persist, scientific evidence produced and evaluated in the aftermath of the BSE crisis shows that the agent causing the disease will not provoke food-borne disease in humans”. Precautionary measures against scrapie in small ruminants have therefore been eased or lifted. France, however, refuses to comply with this as it considers the Union's measures are incomplete. It has therefore kept its own national rules.
Medicinal products for animals. Also on Wednesday, the Commission decided to refer France to the EU Court of Justice for disregarding EU rules on the authorisation of two veterinary medicinal products. In this case in hand, which concerns two applications of veterinary medicinal products submitted via decentralised procedure to several member states, France was the only member state to refuse initial validation. In the Commission's view, the reasons for this refusal do not relate to admissibility of the application but to the scientific assessment of the product. According to Directive 2001/82/EC, a member state cannot prevent the scientific evaluation of a medicinal product by unilaterally refusing to validate the admissibility of the application. Such unilateral action undermines the harmonised authorisation procedure. The Commission has therefore called on the Court to examine France's refusal to process the requests for marketing authorisation for these two veterinary medicinal products. (L.C./transl.jl)