Brussels, 20/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Council adopted, without debate, its "common position" on the Directive aiming to amend the Community legislation concerning animal feed (Directive 95/53/EC setting out the principals governing the organisation of official inspections and Directives 70/524/EEC, 96/25/EC and 199/29/EC concerning animal feed) in view of improving the management of contamination risks for these feeds by undesirable substances damaging to human and animal health as well as the environment.
The text of the "common position" contains provisions requiring that Member States establish operational programmes to tackle all eventualities in emergency situations in the animal feed sector. Tt also foresees the improvement or extension of the early warning system already in place under the terms of Directive 95/53/EC, to make it applicable to all cases where an operator finds at any stage in the production chain of animal feed for animals a product that presents a serious risks for human and animal health and the environment. In virtue of the present system, the obligation for operators to inform the Member States and the Commission only covers cases where they discover that a lot (of raw materials of feed for animals) is not in accordance with the acceptable limit values for substances or undesirables products, is on the verge of being exported from one Member States towards the others. The standard procedures set out for the functioning of the information exchange system are conceived to allow for the extension of the system.
The text is presently before the European Parliament that must rule in second reading over a legislative initiative, which translates the desire to draw, at the Community level, lessons for the recent cases of dioxin contamination of feeds destined for animals.