Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-07-05-Speech-3-243"
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"en.20000705.7.3-243"2
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"Mr President, I fully subscribe to and take as read what has been said so far in relation to the identification and traceability of beef and all beef products. Yesterday the Committee on the Environment voted by 37 votes to 13 for the five amendments before us today – a clear, decisive vote right across this House from colleagues in all different groups.
I would particularly like to mention the category issue here which I suppose effectively means getting back to the first reading position on this. I was incensed when, as late as yesterday, the Commission could not advise us as to exactly what would be involved in 'category'. We are effectively being asked to buy the bovine equivalent of a pig in a poke. This is not acceptable. I would say to the Commissioner, please accept our amendments in relation to this area. There is no need to confuse and mislead the consumers of Europe on a compulsory basis, because the voluntary labelling system which will be driven by competition, pride in product and consumer demand will add anything that a compulsory category label might otherwise require.
I am still confused about the situation in relation to mince. If we are now going to insist on country of origin for mince, why cannot we have country of origin for the larger pieces of beef from 1 September, or whenever? I am not quite sure where we stand on that but we will be advised.
The French situation is amazing. Only yesterday the services of the French Prime Minister wrote to every French MEP in this House – all 87 of them across the House – telling them to vote against all the amendments. What does that tell us about political interference from the top in France? What is that saying about French beef production and protectionism? What is it saying about the Anglo-French beef issue? If the French want to label beef they can do so voluntarily. At the moment they only label 50% of their beef, yet they want to insist on compulsory labelling under category for all of us. I do not understand the political interference and the real message from France, and we should get to the bottom of it."@en1
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