Brussels, 22/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - Under an agreement concluded on Wednesday 22 June, Moscow is to lift its embargo on European vegetables, which has been in place since 2 June, further to the epidemic of the deadly bacteria E. coli in Germany. Exports will resume this week.
At the head of the European delegation sent to the Russian capital by President Barroso, Health Commissioner John Dalli signed an agreement on Wednesday with the head of Russian sanitary services, Guennadi Onichtchenko, whereby the EU will temporarily provide the Russian authorities with certificates from monitoring and verification laboratories, assuring that the vegetables are healthy and do not carry the deadly bacterium. These certificates will guarantee the origin of the production of the vegetables and the absence of the bacterium E. coli 104, the strain which caused the deadly epidemic in Germany. The Commission will send the Russian sanitary authorities the names of the competent national authorities authorised to sign the certificate, which must be stamped on all batches exported to Russia, and the names of the national laboratories accredited with carrying out the checks on the vegetables. The temporary certification system will apply until the 10th day following the last human case of E. coli 104 reported by the authorities of the states of the EU. In a press release, Commissioner Dalli says that he is confident that European exports to Russia will resume quickly. “Both sides have shown goodwill to show that this incident is now behind us”, he commented. Although Onichtchenko cast doubt on the agreement by telling the Russian agency Interfax, late the same morning, that the EU's assurances as to the immediate lifting of the Russian embargo on European vegetables had been “exaggerated”, a spokesperson to Dalli, Frédéric Vincent, confirmed that exports will resume “this week, or [Thursday] for Belgium, the Netherlands and Poland”, which already have a system of controls on the bacterium E. coli 104 in place, with certificates. (E.H./transl.fl)