Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-11-03-Speech-3-054"
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"en.19991103.5.3-054"2
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"To bring this debate to a close, Commissioner, I think that it would be useful to let the matter lie. For much of the debate, I have had the impression that a kind of war was being fought to see whether it would be Great Britain or France who would lose face. I think that that is not what the issue – or the debate – is about, but it does affect the following question in a major way: what is being proposed for European consumers as a whole? British consumers, just like French and Spanish consumers, have the right to know what they are eating and from this point of view, I consider labelling and traceability to be both unavoidable and essential.
But, Commissioner, should it not be pointed out that the source of the whole business, geographically speaking, is Great Britain. Excuse me for saying so, but that is where the first cases of BSE occurred. And why was that? Because there is a farming system there that is particularly geared towards high productivity, because there more than anywhere else, farmers are sacrificed at the altar of the food-processing industry and because instead of crying over British farmers, we would do better to help them to achieve sound means of production, more appropriate means of production. This is something they have already begun to do. I would not want to forget to mention the fact that at the worst moments of this mad cow crisis, the Welsh and the Scots, who have continued to maintain more traditional farming methods, have been punished in the same way as English producers.
Therefore, Commissioner, please tell me what financial resources will be released to pay for traceability, for the slaughter of whole herds in which there is a single case of BSE, for cases of cattle plague, because that is the only way we will be able to reassure consumers. I also think that from this point of view, every European country needs to stop repeating the words “precautionary principle”, as we have done for years, whilst continuing to practise the same frenzied methods of high productivity, and to highlight two or three rather limited examples in order to exercise their rights. Well, Commissioner, what resources will this agency be given?"@en1
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