Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-10-04-Speech-3-023"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20001004.3.3-023"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, we want to guarantee the safety of animal feed and human foodstuffs, and to that end we need a workable European regulatory framework. The crises of recent years have made everyone, including ourselves, more keenly aware of the situation. One thing must be clearly emphasised: the dioxin crisis was the result of criminal infringements of the existing rules and regulations. The time has come for a review of the directives on food safety. In all our deliberations, however, we must be mindful of the entire supply chain; in other words, we need what Mr Glavany, the French President of the Council, has called a quality pact between society, industry and agriculture.
The correlation must be seen, from natural production via industrial processing to marketing. When setting maximum values, we must remember that nature has its own set of laws, that harvests vary from year to year and that farmers are ultimately harmed by environmental effects over which they have no control. For that reason I call on the Commission and the Council to create liability provisions which protect farmers and their land, by which I mean that they must make the compensatory regimes workable and ensure that the provisions are based on the polluter-pays principle.
The 1999 Directive was well thought-out, and it has already scored its first success by demonstrably reducing pollution levels. For that reason, I am starting to wonder whether we actually need tighter rules. What I think we really need is action against criminal offences. I should like to inform the House that Amendments Nos 41, 42, 43 and 44, which the PPE-DE Group tabled, have been withdrawn.
What is new in the present proposal is that it gives Member States scope to operate with action thresholds, which would enable them to use their own discretion as long as the established ceilings were not exceeded. In the context of a necessary European regulatory system, such discretionary scope surely entails a risk to producers as well as jeopardising trade and transactions. There are dangers, and from this dangers in the internal market as well. A prescribed European regime must therefore lay down the line that we all have to follow.
It is absolutely imperative that undesirable substances which are extremely toxic should be neither traded nor used in mixtures, and the withdrawal of the amendments does nothing to alter that position. Farmers have a right to flawless animal feed. Their economic success depends on healthy livestock. No rules can achieve anything if they cannot be strictly and comprehensively enforced. That is why the PPE-DE Group advocates effective controls, and we echo the rapporteur’s call for the food safety auditors in the Commission to be able to conduct unannounced on-the-spot inspections in close and constructive cooperation with the inspectorates of the Member States."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples