Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-06-05-Speech-4-038"
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"en.20030605.2.4-038"2
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".
Mr President, I should like to apologise on behalf of Mr Byrne, who is unable to attend this important debate on healthy food due to previous commitments.
The question of healthy food has given rise to a great deal of interest and that is not unwarranted if we think about the crises that have hit the food industry over recent years.
The specific dossier we are debating today concerns official controls on food of animal origin. The proposal contains special rules for controls on meat, shellfish, fisheries products and milk and dairy products, but of course the debate focuses on the problem of meat inspections. The proposed system of official controls which are carried out at the fresh meat production stage has the following characteristics:
First, it is based on scientific data. The official veterinarian has a central role in the overall supervision and inspection system. It consists of official controls of the systems applied by the business itself and official inspection activities. In other words, it concerns both the business and the public authorities. It has espoused the ‘from farm to fork’ approach, it addresses both matters relating to health and the treatment of animals and it concerns the frequency and the intensity of official controls, which are dependent on the risks. I know here that certain Members of the European Parliament will express concern about possible trends towards privatising official controls. I should like to be absolutely categorical about this; there is no such danger. The basic responsibility always lies with the public authorities and the objective is for there to be better allocation of the human resources of the public authorities, depending on the risk presented by the businesses, by which we mean their record of compliance with the rules. Similarly, this system to which I refer, by which I mean official controls, is aligned with the authorities responsible for food legislation in general, especially as regards the question of responsibility, and provision is made for flexibility for small businesses as and where it is needed. Similarly, I should like at this point to refer to the discussions and concerns of Members of the European Parliament about the required flexibility which small businesses need to have in comparison with large businesses, and to say that provision really is being made here for flexibility in relation to traditional methods of food production, businesses in remote areas and the need for structural changes within the businesses.
To leave the meat area, to which the basic comments I made earlier apply, let us say that the rules relating to shellfish have also been revised on the basis of scientific opinions. These new rules mainly aim to protect consumers from risks associated with the consumption of these products. I shall refer to the proposed amendments in my second intervention at the end of the debate, following the Members' comments."@en1
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