Brussels, 12/05/2000 (Agence Europe) - The EP Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy (chaired by Caroline Jackson, EPP/ED, United Kingdom) has reacted favourably to the European Commission's proposal for a regulation establishing rules for the prevention and eradication of certain transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE), but hopes to improve its provisions so as to reinforce consumer protection. On the basis of the report by Mrs Dagmar Roth-Behrendt (PES, Germany), the committee members adopted the view that the proposed regulation has the merit of providing a uniform legal basis for the control and prevention of all TSE, regardless of type (in particular BSE and scrapie) and for rules on commercial trade to prevent propagation of the agent of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) through live animal transfer. The principal amendments the plenary is invited to adopt at the vote in plenary on Wednesday in Strasbourg call for: 1) assurances that Parliament's participation in fundamental decisions relating to the prevention of TSE will continue, via the codecision procedure; 2) systematic use of early diagnostic tests for TSE among bovine animals, as an effective detection method and which can also serve to determine the state of BSE; 3) the removal from the food chain of entire herds, a request Parliament has already formulated, but which has been rejected by the European Commission; 4) a clear definition at Community level of the concept of geographical area; 5) a complete list of products that will be excluded from the scope of the regulation, such as cosmetics, medicines and various medical products; 6) a tougher obligation on Member States to inform the Commission in cases of suspicion or confirmation of TSE.