Brussels, 15/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 15 December, EU agriculture ministers took note of the progress made on two draft regulations, one on veterinary medicines and the other on the manufacture and placing on the market of medicated feedstuffs.
The European Commission and the member states hope that a compromise will be reached on these two texts during the Dutch Presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2016 (see EUROPE 11361 and 11152).
In a roundtable discussion, a number of countries - Denmark, Netherlands, Italy and Ireland - argued that priority should be given to reducing antibiotic use.
Belgium called for antibiotics to have their authorisations renewed every five years, subject to amendment in light of new resistances.
France raised the issue of how imported antibiotic-based veterinary medicines were to be treated. It argued for a level playing field in the way EU products and those from third countries were treated and urged that the same measures be applied to avoid any competition distortion between producers. For the same reasons, prescription-only medicines must not be able to be purchased online, argued France. In this, it was supported by Austria, Italy and Romania.
Poland, Finland, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Denmark and Romania stressed that work had to be done in parallel on the two texts so that they can come into force simultaneously.
The major concern for the Netherlands is the preventive use of antibiotics (a practice banned in that country). For the Czech Republic, a review should be made of the work and funding of the European Medicines Agency. The Italian delegation argued that antibiotics should be prescribed and administered by vets.
Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis congratulated the Luxembourg Presidency on the great progress made on this issue. The aim of these texts is, the Commission says, to simplify the regulatory framework, cut red tape and protect human and animal health. The proposals on tackling resistance to antibiotics seek to strengthen EU efforts and provide ambitious regulatory instruments. The commissioner acknowledged that banning the preventive use of antibiotics had wide support in the Council. The European Parliament's environment committee is expected to adopt the Grossetête report on the proposal on veterinary medicines in February 2016 (over 900 amendments have been put down). The report is likely to be put before the Parliament plenary session for adoption in May of next year. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)