Brussels, 07/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is “confident” that existing EU sanitary and phytosanitary legislation does not require a “major overhaul”. It nonetheless plans “review and consolidation” of various existing acts in order to improve coherence of import controls.
“A more holistic approach will serve to reinforce the efficiency of the EU's import control regime, ensure an optimal allocation of resources and make it easier to promote and defend the EU regulatory model”, the Commission writes in a report published on 21 December 2010 on the “effectiveness and consistency of sanitary and phytosanitary controls on imports of food, feed, animals and plants”.
The report shows that, while this legislation effectively manages potential and actual risks, it is at times rather complex and lacking in overall coherence. This means it can be burdensome and lead to difficulties with implementation for member states and business operators alike. The report also concludes that the tools available in support of this legislation can be implemented more consistently across the broad range of food chain products so as to ensure that all imported products are subject to conditions and controls directly proportionate to the risk they pose.
Legislative improvements. According to the report, the General Food Law and Official Food and Feed Controls Regulation will continue to provide the general framework for the control of foodstuffs and of other products of relevance for the food chain, while a number of new and innovative steps will be taken to consider how the current system can evolve towards a more efficient mechanism for the handling of coordinated import controls at EU borders. While most of these changes will be found in planned amendments to the Official Food and Feed Controls Regulation, new animal health and plant health legislation is also under consideration.
Improvements highlighted include: - setting up tools so that risk management decisions on imported products fully take into account the risk profile of a given product, its associated hazard and origin; - and review of the EU's plant health regime to take account of new realities to protect the EU against the introduction and spread of harmful organisms.
Finally, the EU will continue to hold dialogue with third countries at both bilateral and multilateral level in order to “ensure that sanitary and phytosanitary concerns are dealt with in an open and transparent manner”, the report states. (L.C./transl.jl)