Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-11-15-Speech-3-186"
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"en.20001115.9.3-186"2
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".
Madam President, I have lost count of how many times we have discussed this over the last four years and of how often I have spoken on this subject. I particularly admire your courage, Mr President-in-Office, in coming here today, because I am sure that apart from the rhetorical boxing round the ears you have received from Mr Böge, you will also be on the receiving end of some other harsh words as a stand-in – and I wish to make that point clear – for your fellow Members of the Council of Ministers.
We have brought in legislation, starting with our exposure of the BSE scandal, which, for years, the Council wanted to sweep under the carpet. We have produced excellent legislation. Let me mention some examples for you: the ban on feeding animal meal to ruminants, animal meal production methods and the removal of risk materials. Where was the Council when this legislation had to be implemented? How long did the Commission have to put up with getting a bloody nose in the Council of Ministers before the removal of risk materials was legislated on? Why did this Council, which attaches so much importance to consumer protection and which now acts as if public health were its top priority, not act earlier and say that this could also be achieved without legislation? You, Mr President-in-Office, and all your colleagues would have been in a position to take appropriate measures in the Member States long before the Commission, unfortunately somewhat belatedly, brought forward its proposal to process only those animal parts suitable for human consumption into animal meal. This could have been a Council initiative. I really wonder why we had to do battle with the Council about beef labelling in the European Court of Justice. Was that necessary? I also wish to ask you, Mr President-in-Office, in relation to your reference to France's policy, why it has taken France so long to transpose the legislation on animal meal manufacturing methods? I fail to understand that. Nor can I understand why France could not transpose the provisions on the pressure, temperature and heating time for the production of animal meal more quickly.
As Mr Böge has already said – he and I were rapporteurs for the TSE regulation – we had our first reading on 17 May. Where is the Council common position, if this is so important? Excuse me, Mr President-in-Office, if I make a rather heretical assumption, namely that you personally are certainly very interested in public health and in consumer health, but time and again I cannot help feeling that the Council considers market organisation and economic aspects to be much more compelling. And the moment, as you would put it, public hysteria breaks out, there is immediate concern about beef markets collapsing. Then you react. I would say to you with one small reservation, Mr President-in-Office, that I am very interested to know when those countries which have today agreed a universal ban on animal meal in feedingstuffs will open the door again by saying that animal meal is now being produced safely and we can feed it to animals once more. But I shall be very calm and wait for you to tell me something new here.
I will tell you exactly what we need, ladies and gentlemen – we need two things. The first is good legislation. We have already put large parts of this in place, and we are trying to take this further, and we need to act quickly. It is up to you to deliver this legislation quickly. Up to now the Council has acted as a very major brake on this. All 15 Members of the Council have dragged their feet. And I can tell you that worked very well, it was very effective. Once we have good legislation we need controls. That is why I am very grateful that our joint motion for a resolution, which I hope will be adopted almost unanimously tomorrow, contains a requirement for the Member States to report on their controls. I would like to know when Germany, France, Sweden, Austria and all the other countries have carried out health checks on the production of animal feed, and when veterinary checks have been carried out, and how many poor overworked veterinary officers there are, and whether you are recruiting any new ones at all.
If you are serious about all this, then you do not need a token Food Authority, which might prepare legislation on food safety, but which is not in a position to deliver what we can: good legislation and controls. That is your job, Mr President-in-Office. Madam President, I would be delighted if this were to be my last speech on this subject in this House, because we really must get this sorted out sooner or later!"@en1
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