Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-11-03-Speech-3-043"
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"en.19991103.5.3-043"2
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"In my innocence and naivety I thought that when the scientific steering committee met last week and made their announcement, indeed the announcement was made by Mr Pascale, himself a Frenchman as President of that committee, indicating the unanimous approval of that committee that British beef is as safe as any other beef in the EU or possibly safer than any beef worldwide, that was the top of the pyramid. I did not think you could go any higher than that. Now we are told by Mr Byrne that we need just a few extra days of discussions. Well, it appears to me that we have had three months since 1 August in which the French and the Germans have defied EU law. Are you now telling me Mr Byrne that during those three months when a vast dossier was prepared by the French food safety agency that they did not examine the technical implications embracing traceability, testing, derived products, controls and labelling? Are you telling me that only now at this last minute after the scientific steering committee has made its unanimous pronouncement they want further technical clarification of those points? It seems ludicrous. What exactly are they asking for?
We heard Mr Martinez questioning the competence of the Scientific Steering Committee. Is Mr Martinez aware, and are you Commissioner aware, of the fact that the AFSSA, the French food safety agency, has an annual budget of EUR 52 million and has a board of governors of whom 50% are appointed by the French government, the other 50% representing farmers, food retailers and food distributors? So let us ask some questions about their competence. We were assured at the highest level in Paris that this matter was not being driven by protectionism but was being driven purely by science. This smacks to me of pure commercial protectionism and now it has been exposed. Are you aware this is the way that the AFSSA is being driven, Mr Byrne?"@en1
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