Brussels, 13/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday evening, eight of the countries most affected by the horsemeat scandal (horsemeat being used instead of beef in prepared frozen meals) attended the informal emergency ministerial meeting. The meeting consisted of countries most caught up in the horsemeat issue and was convened by the Irish Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers. As we go to press, the meeting is still continuing. When he arrived, Simon Coveney, the Irish minister for agriculture, food and marine affairs and acting president of the Agriculture Council, did not attempt to hide from the press that he expected, at this meeting, European Commission proposals for a proactive collective response to this Europe-wide problem. “We asked the Commission for this crisis meeting to discuss the current scandal in Europe. The scandal was discovered in Ireland, initially, on 15 January when a burger containing horsemeat was discovered and since then it has become a problem at a European scale. Eight countries are represented and seven ministers are attending, as well as Commissioner Borg. We want an open and frank conversation on how we can collectively respond to this, as a number of countries have opened investigations to try and see what has happened. In simple terms, horse has been sold as beef. It is totally unacceptable from a consumer point of view but also from that of the integrity of the food chain in the EU and we need to see who has been passing off horsemeat as beef and that requires a collective response from the EU and the European Commission”. He also expressed his hope that the European Commission would speed up its work on the feasibility of processed food product labelling.
Earlier in the day, a few hours before the meeting he was due to attend, Tonio Borg, the European Commissioner for health and consumer policy was keen to reassure European consumers and said: “I am following very closely the situation…over fraudulent labelling of horsemeat”. He is eager to obtain the results from the ongoing investigations into identifying the guilty parties and asserted that “the European Commission stands ready to help in any possible way”. Nonetheless, he did point out that “implementing EU legislation on labelling is the responsibility of member states” and that this problem should not be used to undermine the single market. He said that if this became a safety problem, the alarm bell would be sounded but for the time being it is a labelling problem. On Friday, the matter was debated by experts at the EU Standing Committee on the Food Chain. The Agriculture Council 24-25 February will also be tackling the question. (AN/transl.fl)