Strasbourg, 05/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - Following the ban on animal meals in bovine feed, and then for pigs and poultry, the consumption of plant proteins in the Union has increased. It is necessary to encourage the production in the member countries? The cost/benefit analysis carried out by the European Commission comes to the conclusion that the budgetary constraints do not enable it to consider measures in favour of an increase in production: continuing to import from the United States and Argentina will be cheaper. It is Commissioner Franz Fischler, who thus explained, to the European Parliament, the conclusions reached by the Commission (see EUROPE of 19 March, p.12).
These statements did not convince the Assembly. We want a true European plant protein plan, stated Mrs Schierhuber (VOP, Austria). You raise purely economic arguments, replied the Spanish Socialist Mrs Rodriguez Ramos - and you do so one day after the Parliament has voted a report in which it asserts that health is a value that cannot be subordinated to commercial criteria, added the member of Alleanza Nazionale Mrs Poli Bortoni (one of the parliamentarian's fears is to see genetically modified organisms enter into the Union, through imports of American Soya). There are at least three reasons for an increase in the Union's production, according to Mr Souchet (RPF, French): the quest for self-sufficiency, the benefits for the environment and greater traceability of feeds. It is necessary to review the Blair House agreements with the United States, asserted Mr Jove Peres (Izquierda unida, Spanish), for whom the dependency on the exterior by this domain is an unacceptable weakness.