Brussels, 14/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - After two days of meetings in Moscow, Russia and the European Union were still unable, on Tuesday 13 March, to reach an agreement on lifting the Russian embargo on meat from Poland. The EU considers failings noted by Moscow in the quality of Polish meat do not warrant keeping the blockade on deliveries in place.
The Russian authorities called on European experts to provide additional information on the results of controls on Polish meat, Alexeï Alexeenko, who is spokesman for the Russian veterinary and phytosanitary control service, told AFP. He said the European Commission should “provide answers within two weeks”. The Commission, for its part, pointed out that the Russian authorities had given the Europeans a list of “failings” noted during inspections carried out in Poland last month by Russian health inspectors. “We shall be looking at them point by point”, said the spokesman for Markos Kyprianou, Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection. The spokesman said “our first reaction is that none of these failings justifies keeping an embargo in place” on Polish meat. The Russian embargo on Polish meat has been imposed since November 2005, and Warsaw has therefore blocked talks on a new EU/Russia partnership agreement.
Moscow doubts EU animal products are innocuous
During their meeting, European and Russian experts spoke of the quality of meat supplied by EU countries other than Poland. Moscow recently restated the threat of suspending imports of products of animal origin from the European Union, unless member states provide the Russian authorities with reports on the quality of imported products for each country of the EU by 31 March (EUROPE 9378). “Europeans have pledged to provide the results of inspections on products of animal origin for the year 2006 by the end of the month, as well as a timetable for inspections to be carried out in 2007”, Mr Alexeenko said, reported by AFP. Russia's veterinary control service had stated in early March that some deliveries of products of animal origin since the beginning of the year from Europe to Russia did not comply with Russian veterinary standards. The service stated it had discovered “salmonella” in certain deliveries of meat from Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands last year, as well as “listeria” in Dutch meat.
The spokesman for Commissioner Kyprianou stressed, on Tuesday 13 March, that Russia's request was “not unreasonable” as the EU calls for similar reports from third countries from which it imports animal products. The countries of the EU must provide such reports to the Commission each year, by 31 March. The Commission is awaiting them and will then send them on to the Russians, the Commission said. It notes, however, that Moscow had “never requested” such reports in the past.
“Once answers to the questions raised on European and Polish meats have been given, new talks may take place. We are willing to meet the European authorities in Brussels or Moscow to continue the talks”, states a Russian source, cited by AFP. (lc)