Brussels, 12/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - The scandal involving prepared frozen horsemeat meals that were supposed to be beef will be brought to the attention of EU ministers on Wednesday 13 February. The Irish Presidency of the EU Council made this decision as the polemic is beginning to grow, when assurances have been given by the Romanian prime minister, Victor Ponta, that operators in his country are not to be blamed in any way, and Benoit Hamon, the French minister responsible for consumer issues, has announced that fraud must not be ruled out. All the ministers responsible for this issue have been called to attend a special meeting on in Brussels Wednesday afternoon to assess the situation. Appeals have also grown, particularly from Stephane Le Foll, the French minister for agriculture, “in cooperation with the United Kingdom”, the country where the food fraud was discovered. Tonio Borg, European Commissioner for Consumer Protection, will be taking part in this meeting to review the situation. The Irish Presidency is also planning to include the subject on the agenda of the next Agriculture Council in Brussels on 25 February. The French minister for agriculture also announced that he would be seeking to use this occasion to “push” for improvements to EU labelling rules.
On Tuesday, however, the European Commission repeated that European rules “were not to blame”. Commissioner Borg's spokesman, Frédéric Vincent, informed the European press that “if it turns out that there is a problem of fraud, which is perhaps the case, labelling could have contributed to the fraud and the product would have been deliberately incorrectly labelled at the outset. This is a problem involving data information from economic actors to member states. At this stage, it is a little premature to plan on compulsory labelling for processed products and meat”. According to the spokesman, discussion is taking place on the feasibility of reviewing processed products labelling rules in the long-term, “but it will be necessary to discuss this with economic operators and member states. Nothing has been decided”. With regard to the current scandal, “it is up to member states to carry out checks and inform the Commission. The RAFF (Rapid alert System for Food and Feed: Ed) is open 24 hours a day, every day. We are encouraging member states to carry out inspections as quickly as possible. These are currently being carried out in Romania and France”. On Thursday, the day after this special Council, the results from this investigation currently being carried out by the French DGCCRF (Directorate General for consumers and fraud control) will be made known. (AN/transl.fl)