Strasbourg, 16/11/2000 (Agence Europe) - The debate that the European Parliament had on Wednesday evening over the new developments in the BSE crisis was the opportunity not only to call for much stricter controls (nearly all the MEPs were in agreement over this need, but some of them emphasised the difficulties for European farmers), but also to bring back into question certain aspects of CAP and the consequences of the Marrakech agreement through which Europe accepted to limit its own production of vegetable proteins, leaving the door open to Soya from the United States, Argentina and Brazil. We call upon the European Commission and our EU partners to prepare the extension to the European level of tests of the bovine population considered to be at risk, "in accordance with scientific advice", said in the Parliament on behalf of the Council Presidency Francois Patriat, French Secretary of States for consumption, when explaining to the MEPs the action plan adopted the day before by his government, and in particular the ban of the use of bone meal in the feed for pigs, poultry and fish. These meals, he said, "have appeared to consumers as the symbol of the excesses of a certain mode of agricultural production that has ruled for the last forty years, which enabled to ensure the supply of animal by products at reasonable prices, but which also revealed its limitation". France, indicated Mr Patriat, called for the situation of the bovine meat market to be included in the agenda of the Agriculture Council next Monday and Tuesday in Brussels, and already called for the "activation of a private storage provision foreseen by the CMO for bovine meat": the results from the Veterinary Committee will be presented to the Council on 20 November, the stake being to "re-establish European consumer confidence in beef". The Council Presidency also planned, on 20 November, a "open debate on food safety", added Mr Patriat, while noting that several proposals aiming to re-establish consumer confidence are presently under discussion; in particular a draft framework text on the fight against transmissible subacute spongiform encephalopathy (TSSE) is presently being examined in the Council, with the aim of achieving an agreement in the December Agriculture Council. This text aims to "create the legal basis enabling to take, in the framework of a single text, practically all the measures concerning epidemio-monitoring, health and safety officers and the ban on risk tissues", and also those relating to the marketing, trading, importing and exporting of live animals and their products", said the Consumer Council President. Finally Mr Patriat announced that the "Internal Market, Consumers and Tourism" Council, he will chair on 30 November, will have an in-depth debate on the creation of a European food safety authority and try to find "path that should guide the functioning of this Authority"; he said he was certain that "the parliamentary timetable will fully take into account the need to move quickly so that, as the Commission proposes, we have an operational EFSA by 2002".
Prudence from Mr Byrne over ban on all bone meal
The European Commission for Health and Consumers, David Byrne, asserted that the high levels of BSE in France is mainly due to the introduction of tests proposed by the European Commission, and that "all the member States should follow the French example". We must not ignore the significant progress made over the last years, and in particular last year, in order to put in place a framework enabling to attack BSE, felt the Commissioner, who said he was "frankly disappointed" that the statement by the French Prime Minister Jospin, the day before, did not "recognise the largely positive role played by the Community" in this context. Inspired by the Parliament, the European Commission was the force that pushed for the adoption of measures for the eradication of BSE, "despite the frequent absences of support from Member States", he underlines. The recent events must not attack this progress; Mr Byrne awaits "strong support" from the European Summit in Nice to the Commission proposal on the European food safety authority. In the immediate, the Commission feels that targeted tests are crucial to have a clear image of the true levels of BSE, but that these tests must be established on a much larger scale. The Commission will make to the Agriculture Council on Monday proposals on very wide ranging tests, "fully answering the public demands". As for the French decision to ban bone and meat meal, Mr Byrne awaits the opinion of the French Food Safety Agency on the opportunity of maintaining this measure. When recalling that the very strict checks are in place, he regretted that "many inspections by the Commission Veterinary and Food Office brought to the fore weaknesses in the implementation of these checks", which is "unacceptable",
especially as that leads to a ban on meat and bone meal "with vast financial and environmental consequences stemming from it". Mr. Byrne is counting on the collaboration of the European Parliament to rapidly securing the regulation on animal waste, and he warned against any "magic solution" like, precisely, "a total ban on meat and bone meal". A wide range of controls is currently in place to ensure that these substances do not create a threat of the transmission of BSE, the Commissioner recalled, while acknowledging that "if there is a weakness in the controls, clearly there is a problem". If the French decision to ban meat and bone meal "is motivated by fears over the adequacy of their controls, it is a decision I fully endorse", said David Byrne, announcing that next Monday he would be asking Member States if they had such fears.
Parliamentarians stress responsibilities of Member States
During the debate, several MEPs were scathing at Member States. This was particularly the case for the members of the CDU and SPD, Mr. Boge and Ms. Roth-Behrendt (who were both rapporteurs on BSE at the beginning of the crisis, four years ago). The Commission must be able to act much more rapidly in case of crises, said Mr. Borg; he blamed the Council of not yet having adopted the regulation on the TSSEs, and also raised the budgetary problem.: generalised tests will cost some 130 million euro, and one has to be prepared to take account of that in the amending letter on Budget 2001. Ms. Roth Behrendt said she had the impression that the Council was more interested in market organisations than in human health, and that, at present, it was especially concerned at the risk of the market for beef collapsing. Swedish Liberal Mr. Olsson also spoke out in favour of very strict controls enabling consumers to know where the products they ate came from, and for sanctions against those who allowed sick animals to enter the food chain. The French Green, Isler Béguin also placed emphasis on criminal and fraudulent acts not remaining unpunished. The 1993 GATT agreement needs revising that limits European needs in vegetable protein production to 25%, French Communist Ms. Ainardi pointed out, and Mr. Pasqua (Union for a Europe of Nations) agreed, stating that "the thing about bad agreements, is that they have to be placed back into question", and the soja and alfalfa crops need developing in Europe which "will feed our animals better than American GMOs". Mr. Gollnisch (Front National) attacked the "Anglo-Saxon manufactures of bone meal", claiming that it was they who needed "prosecuting", and not the "butchers and tripe butchers", who were in no way guilty. We have the land and ability to produce our own vegetable proteins, exclaimed Mr. Souchet (French member of the Union for a Europe of Nations Group), denouncing the Blair House Agreement, and calling that it be demanded of third countries that they apply the same health standards as does the EU. Mr. Farage (British member of the Europe of Democracies and Diversities Group) pleaded in favour of the small pig farmers, whereas French Green Ms. Auroi, who also spoke out in favour of a systematic screening of BSE and the temporary and general suspension of animal meal in the feed of all animals, exclaimed: "Today, those claiming not to have cases mad cow on their territory are those not seeking it out". According to her, meat and bone meal could be burnt in ovens or serve for the manufacture of bio-gases, whereas the "grass of our fields, the white clover today abandoned by the CAP, may provide satisfactory solutions to animal and human food safety". For Ms. Grosstete (French, EPP), this crisis demonstrates that a reform of the CAP is indispensable, so that this policy be re-directed to encourage farmers to "produce better"; and she too spoke out in favour of the development of vegetable crops, "on land so far left fallow". To do so, "discussions within the WTO need starting soon and show the Americans, in the next set of negotiations, the picture of a genuinely strong and determined Europe". Mr. Lavarra (Demoncratici di sinistra) called for a ban on animal meal (including fish meal), for systematic testing of all cattle and an early application of the new system of the labelling of meat throughout the EU. The Chairman of the Agriculture Committee, Mr. Graef zu Baringdorf (German Green) recalled that his group had been asking for a generalisation of testing for a long time, placing emphasis on the European dimension of the problem. According to him, it is not the European Commission that needs criticising in this affair, but rather the Member States. Have there been controls everywhere? Asked Mr. Papayannakis (Greek, United Left), EP rapporteur on the labelling of beef, who would like to know more about the cost of the incineration of meat meal..
Let's not put anyone on trial, concluded Mr. Patriat, but proceed with the necessary evaluations to put an end to the insecurity that still persists today and take Community measures to avoid distortions to competition. That is the only way to proceed, even though the possibility of fraud or error can never by completely discarded.
Parliament calls for rapid introduction of generalised screening tests and suspension
of use of all animal meals
To conclude the long debate on Wednesday (see previous page) the EP adopted on Thursday morning a resolution from the EPP, Socialist, Liberal, Green, United Left and Union for a Europe of Nations groups, asserting that the "full traceability of feed, from the pitch fork to the fork and the stable to the table", should be a fundamental element of EU policy in terms of food. Recalling that a experimental testing programme lasting for six months launched last June enabled to uncover "no less than 35 cases of BSE contamination in animals that would not have been found in the framework of normal veterinary inspection". The Parliament reiterated its call in favour of the rapid introduction in all the member States, of obligatory screening tests for all bovines, ovine and caprine for slaughter, starting with those of more than eighteen month. Furthermore, it deplores the "lack of harmonisation concerning the ban on animal meal" and calls for ban on the production of animal feeds that would "use of recycled animal remains" for any animal including poultry and fish, as long as the Member States cannot guarantee the enforcement of the Community regulation concerning the prevention of BSE and that the exclusion of animal cadavers in foodstuff has not entered into force. An "absolute" ban on ingredients in feed for animals must also been planned for blood and blood products, including mixes, underlines the resolution. Furthermore, the Parliament, which calls for the Community budget to include the necessary financial means for the carrying out of tests and other health protection measures, insists on the highest protection of human health possible also in third countries, and reiterates its call in favour of research efforts for a rapid diagnosis of TSE, and the withdrawal from the food chain "of all the herds in which one individual tests positive". By adopting an amendment from Mr Olsson on behalf of the Liberal group, the Parliament notes that the farmers will probably be the first to detect possible cases in their herds; national policies for eradication should as a result encourage "all the actors involved in all the first links of the food chain to declare all possible cases of BSE". Finally, the Parliament launched a call pushing in favour of a "crisis system (with an appeal for temporary injunctions) that will allow the Commission to take immediate action when Community standards are not implemented or properly checked in the Member States".