Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-11-16-Speech-4-097"
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"en.20001116.5.4-097"2
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".
The recent cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) are, I am afraid, condemning confirmation of the Union's delays in tackling food safety, delays which are even more to be condemned if we consider that the use of meat-and-bone meal in feedingstuffs has been considered dangerous for some time – it was condemned by this House a long time ago – and yet no measures have been taken. It is therefore necessary to establish as soon as possible the procedures to prevent the use of anatomical parts liable to lead to the transmission of the virus.
The Commission's proposals contained in the White Paper on food safety and, in particular, the establishment of the authority which is to guarantee this safety, must be implemented as soon as possible – over a year has passed and the authority is not yet operative – in order to avoid the confusion of actions carried out by the governments on the subject causing damage such as that which we are witnessing now. The damage is extremely serious in that it affects two strictly related areas: human health, on the one hand, and, on the other, the health of the cattle species and, consequently, the economy of the zootechnical sector.
We should remember that Europe banned France from continuing to enforce the embargo on beef and veal from the United Kingdom and that the lack of measures has allowed the epidemic now to spread to France.
It is, nevertheless, necessary for the Commission to ban the use of meat-and-bone meal henceforth and to provide for – as far as is known – safer procedures to destroy the parts considered dangerous such as the brain and bone marrow. Until we are given more information by the scientific bodies, it would be appropriate to destroy the cattle carcasses as well to provide the highest possible guarantee of the protection of human health.
The cases of BSE which have arisen in France, in the same way as the dioxins in chickens issue in Belgium, are the latest in a long series of irresponsible incidents. For fear of spreading panic among the citizens or with a view to avoiding commercial disasters, certain governments did not provide the Commission with the necessary information quickly enough or did not immediately call a halt to consumption of the products in question or ban their export at the first signs of danger. These irresponsible attitudes must be strongly condemned and, to avoid these incidents reoccurring, appropriate regulations must be established for all the States of the Union. It is unthinkable that we should be trying to run a single market without common rules for such a major sector as that of public health.
In the face of these uncertainties, the citizens’ reaction is, rightly, one of fear and the refusal to consume those products which are suspected of being dangerous for health. This attitude is combined with lack of confidence in the European Union, which appears to the citizens not to be able to guarantee the safety of the foodstuffs on the market. To restore the confidence of the citizens as well as protect their health, it is vital that the Union speeds up its decision-making, defining common rules on the matter and placing the scientific and control bodies in operation as soon as possible to monitor food safety. The ban on the use of meat-and-bone meal for feedingstuffs is only the first step along this road."@en1
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