Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-10-05-Speech-2-032"
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"en.19991005.3.2-032"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner Prodi, I think that the statement you have made today demonstrates that the Commission does indeed intend to provide consumers with full guarantees as regards safe and healthy food. Today, I want to touch on three points which appear to me to be crucial if these guarantees are to be lived up to.
First and foremost, we need effective legislation, at European level too, of course. You did indeed refer to 800 basic directives but in fact there are still huge gaps in this legislation. It just does not make sense for there only to be PCB and dioxin standards for Belgium, and for it not to be deemed necessary for other European countries. Neither does it make much sense to me that we are not to discuss how to proceed with pesticides, antibiotics and with other undesirable contaminants in food. I feel I have no choice but to agree with those here present who have called for a positive list to be compiled as regards cattle fodder, for you would not believe how much goes wrong there.
A second important point appears to me to be the introduction of a sound supervisory system. You may say that responsibility for supervision should fall first and foremost to the Member States and indeed it should. However, the Committee of Inquiry in Belgium has shown that things are going badly wrong there. To my mind, it is extremely important for supervision to be undertaken in the same way in all Member States, for there to be guarantees for this supervision, for the supervisors themselves to be subject to supervision, and for the agency in Dublin to be given more autonomous authority to exercise supervision on its own initiative.
My third and final point is one that I feel it is very important to touch on in today’s debate, namely that there is a real need for the work of all the departments concerned to be coordinated. We are all aware that there are many of them. Even though the Commission is being re-organised, it is still the case that a variety of departments are involved. President Prodi, Belgium has set up a food safety agency for this purpose. I feel it is also important for a coordinating body to be set up at European level, and that there is also a need for reliable, scientific advice, for coherent policy at European level. I welcome your announcement about the open debate that is to take place on the setting up of a European food agency.
President Prodi, if this agency is to be independent of something then, to my mind, it is essential for it to be independent of industrial lobbying. When it comes to our food policy, we cannot allow commercial interests to take precedence over the interests of the consumer. We believe it is absolutely essential that an agency of this kind should always fall within the Commission’s sphere of political responsibility, and always be under the political control of the European Parliament. Equally, we feel it is essential that all the Directorates-General throughout the Commission’s administration should work together in an efficient manner. I hope that Commissioner Byrne will be able to fulfil his role as coordinator efficiently and effectively."@en1
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