In Luxembourg on Monday 3 April, the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis, who attended to report back to the European agriculture ministers on his recent visit to Brazil, emphasised the serious guarantees of official controls he had demanded of the Brazilian agriculture Minister, Blairo Maggi, and the strict monitoring of these commitments.
He also highlighted his own commitment to do all in his power to ensure that European consumers do not pay the price for the rotten meat scandal in Brazil, but is not at this stage considering any additional measures to those taken since 17 March (see EUROPE 11758, 11757).
"I started by giving the ministers my personal commitment to ensure the respect of EU food standards and the protection of public health in the European Union. This commitment was also central to my discussions with the Brazilian minister. We discussed the safety and quality of exported products and I stressed the principle of predictability and reliability of the official Brazilian controls", the commissioner said after the meeting.
Addressing the press, which expressed surprise that the EU veterinary services had not detected this fraud, Andriukaitis replied by saying that it was not their job in the immediate term to detect cases of fraud in Brazil. "It is up to Brazil to restore trust in its meat exports. However, we reacted quickly and brought in very strict measures". He stressed that the Commission would continue to monitor the situation closely.
He went on to say that he had received a letter from the Brazilian minister that morning stating that the rotten meat scandal is about "fraud and corruption, not food safety".
As regards other measures that might be taken in the coming weeks or months, he said that this would depend on the information provided by the member states on the basis of harmonised measures agreed upon between the Commission and the member states' experts on 30 March, specifically physical and microbiological controls at the points of entry to the EU of consignments from Brazil. He said that "the EU's strict import control regime gives us the highest level of security in the world".
When asked about the impact that this scandal might have on free trade negotiations with Mercosur and the possibility of suspending these negotiations for the entire duration of the investigation, as called for by the agricultural syndicate Copa-Cogeca, Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan pointed out that the scandal affects Brazil, and that it would be unfair to bundle it and the other Mercosur countries together. Arguing that the Commission has adopted a very firm position towards the Brazilian authorities and, given that talks have been underway since 2000 without much progress, he added that this was not a cause for undue concern. "The talks will continue", said Hogan, adding: "we want a very strong SPS (sanitary and phytosanitary) chapter. I hope that things will move on quickly, unless the ambitions are scaled down by the Mercosur partners. We will be extremely vigilant. On agriculture, we are on the defensive". (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)