The Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakides, spoke to MEPs on the European Parliament’s Committee on Environment, Health and Food Safety (ENVI), on Thursday 21 April, as part of the structured dialogue with MEPs on food safety and sustainable food systems.
This exchange allowed her to review the major issues of this year 2022 ‘year of action’ and to confirm in particular the importance that the implementation of the ‘Farm to Fork’ (F2F) strategy will have, as the war in Ukraine has not changed the Commission’s commitments to sustainability, “quite the contrary”, she assured.
F2F strategy. The Commissioner stressed that this strategy will enable a fundamental reorientation of European agriculture and food systems to be more resilient and sustainable.
“We are pushing the ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy because it is an imperative, not a luxury, as part of the One Health approach. To minimise future risks, we must be able to provide the protection we need for the future, which means bringing together the concepts of a European Green Deal, a European Health Union and animal welfare. We are constantly working on this and we intend to implement our strategy, as planned”, said the Commissioner.
She said that this approach is the one that will prevent future pandemics.
Sustainable use of pesticides. The revision of the legislation through a proposal for a regulation expected on 22 June is particularly necessary for the protection of biodiversity, the environment and human health, the Commissioner stressed. This future regulation, which is the responsibility of the EU ‘Agriculture’ Council, will “protect citizens, sensitive areas and provide a robust legal framework to ensure that integrated pest management is a key approach for all farmers”.
She added that while chemical pesticides should be the last resort, access to low-risk or biological pesticides should be facilitated so that farmers are not left without the means to protect their crops.
Sustainable food systems. The proposed legislative framework - another key text, according to Ms Kyriakides - will set common objectives, principles and responsibilities in the food system.
The Commission is also preparing the revision of EU Regulation 1169/2011 on food information for consumers “to help them make healthier food choices”.
New GMOs. Ms Kyriakides said that the revision of the GMO authorisation legislation could allow new genomic techniques to help farmers to have seeds that guarantee high yields, by “improving varieties in a short time”. In her opinion, it should be determined together with the Parliament how to boost sustainability and food security, without compromising food safety.
Health scandals. Marie Toussaint (Greens/EFA, France) and Biljana Borzan (S&D, Croatia) asked what action the Commission plans to take in the face of recent scandals, such as salmonella in chocolate and listeria in cheese, which expose control failures and threaten human health. Ms Kyriakides read out the EFSA and ECDC introductory report on the origin of the contamination in Ferrero products and replied that Member States had to implement EU legislation and that sanctions for offenders were their responsibility. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)