Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-03-29-Speech-3-049"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20000329.5.3-049"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"You are perfectly correct in what you say about the provision of information by the Belgian authorities in respect of the dioxin issue. There was quite a considerable delay at that time which was a matter of concern to everybody, not only the Commission, but obviously Parliament as well. It was of such concern to the Commission that proceedings were instituted by the Commission against Belgium in the Court of Justice. That litigation remains in place, even though the other aspects of the particular problem that you raise have been resolved, because of the delay in reporting this particular matter to the relevant authorities and to the European Union.
Perhaps I might continue with the other aspect of my presentation to Parliament this afternoon, which deals with the proposal for the introduction of BSE tests, and I have pleasure in presenting this to Parliament this afternoon.
I have announced on several occasions that I consider the new rapid post-mortem tests to be one of the most important tools in our efforts to control BSE. The Commission’s services have worked on a proposal to introduce these tests in BSE monitoring throughout the Community since September last year.
Currently we have three different tests which have been found to give excellent results when used to test animals with clinical signs of disease after their death. The tests offer new opportunities to test a large number of animals on a routine basis. An active monitoring programme carried out in Switzerland has demonstrated that the use of rapid post-mortem tests could significantly improve the efficacy of BSE monitoring, particularly if targeted on animals which die on farms or are sent for casualty slaughter. Since 1998, the Community has a BSE surveillance programme in place which is based on the examination of animals with clinical symptoms suggestive of BSE.
The Commission now proposes to replace that programme with a new programme where each Member State tests a representative sample of dead-on-farm and casualty-slaughtered cattle in its territory. Compared with the current monitoring, the sample size will be increased twenty-five to one hundredfold in each Member State depending on the size of the cattle population. I expect that the proposed new monitoring will provide significantly better information on the incidence of BSE in the Community than we have at present. I am also happy to be able to tell Parliament that these particular tests will produce a result within 24 hours.
We propose to test a minimum number of 65 000 animals per year in the whole Community, and the testing will start in January 2001. The proposed decision does not in itself have implications on the Community budget but that is an issue that will be discussed in the special veterinary committee next week.
I commend these proposals to Parliament which have been put through the Commission this afternoon."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples