Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-02-10-Speech-2-022"
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"en.20040210.1.2-022"2
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".
Mr President, I have been asked a number of questions and I will endeavour to answer as many as possible.
Mr Mulder asked me about the inspection systems. In his opinion inspections are not carried out at the same level for products coming in from outside the European Union. Under Commission Decision 2002/995/EC, all personal imports of meat in the luggage of passengers from Asia have been banned with the exception of small amounts of specialist food products, such as baby food. Under these rules, poultry meat and meat products carried by passengers cannot be introduced into the EU without conforming to the same health requirements as commercial imports. As I said earlier, no commercial imports of poultry meat are allowed from any Asian country where the disease is present.
Mr Graefe zu Baringdorf then asked me whether I reacted quickly or only when the press publicised this issue. As has been indicated by a number of other speakers, I was in Asia when this outbreak became public. I had been in Vietnam, from where we do not import any poultry meat, so the issue does not arise there. But I had also been in Thailand. It is public knowledge that in the early part of the week when I was there, there was some lack of transparency, if could express it in that way. I was concerned during the couple of days I was there at the mounting circumstantial evidence tending in the other direction. Following pressing questions from me, it was made clear to me two or three days later that in fact avian flu was present, both in the human and bird populations. I am satisfied that my presence in Thailand helped to improve transparency in relation to this issue. As soon as the presence of avian flu was confirmed to me on 23 January, I put a ban in place within a matter of hours. The ban went in place on that Friday at 12 o'clock, Brussels time. Any suggestion that the Commission reacted slowly is incorrect. I cannot imagine any greater degree of surveillance or monitoring than the Commissioner being there himself, asking questions, not being satisfied with the answers, pressing further, getting the truth and acting within hours.
Mr Gollnisch asked me about the risk of contamination of the United States virus. It is believed, but not yet confirmed, that this virus is a low pathogenic virus and therefore would not require the same degree of response as for the Asian influenza from Thailand. However, that is not confirmed, we are still looking at it and our response will depend on our information. I assure him that the lifting of the ban will only take place after independent evaluation of the circumstances.
Mr Fiori asked me about pet birds and other birds. A ban has been put in place in respect of the importation of pet birds. He asked me about coordinating groups. There is a regulatory committee of the EU, which includes Member States' experts, who deal with that. He asked me about links between globalisation and diseases. The OIE in Paris continues evaluating the situation. The Commission is a member of that, Member States are involved. They are meeting later this month in relation to this issue. The SPS Agreement is also a relevant contributor to the protection of animal and public health in relation to the WTO issues.
Mr de Roo asked me about borders. Once again, I refer back to the lack of competences that we have in relation to borders and communicable diseases, but I hope more progress will be made on this. I refer him also to my earlier answer that the health ministers are meeting later this week to deal with many of the issues that he raised about the public health aspect and in particular vaccinations.
Mr Parish said that it was only when I returned that I discovered there was a problem and that I reacted well. As I indicated earlier, that was not the case; I reacted while I was there and the Commission responded well to this issue. We have not banned cooked meats for the reasons that have been stated. I am advised that cooked meats above 60 degrees – and we put in a safety margin of another 10 degrees – are safe for human consumption. The inspectors in the European Union, and in the Member States themselves, know what is necessary and carry out appropriate inspections to ensure that there are no breaches of Community law in relation to this issue. He also referred to labelling and I refer him to my earlier answer.
Mrs Oomen-Ruijten asked me whether we followed the Member States' lead in this. The actual chronology of events is that on 23 January the Commission put in place the ban in circumstances I have already outlined; Member States responded with the regulatory committee confirming that ban on 6 February; and a further ban was put in place in respect of feathers – Mr Nicholson asked me about that – on 28 January.
Mr Sturdy asked me how long it took for the ban to be put in place. I have already answered that question.
There were a number of questions in relation to the number of inspectors at the border posts. This is a Member State competence. The Member States themselves make sure that they have enough officials to ensure that the importation is properly inspected. The Food and Veterinary Office inspectors monitor this when they carry out their inspections. They report, and the reports are public. There are no reports of any concerns in relation to this.
On labelling, I refer you to my earlier answer.
First, Mrs Jackson asks whether I am satisfied with the inspection services that we have, particularly in relation to our work in Asia. In relation to the FVO, I should say that I have not sent the FVO to Thailand in respect of this particular outbreak. The experts who are there, who have been offered by me, have been supplying their services through the World Health Organisation and are in place working with the OIE
in Vietnam particularly. The FVO will be involved in this exercise only when it is believed there is something profitable to be gained from it, that is in circumstances where there is the possibility of lifting the ban. I have made it clear on a number of occasions publicly that it is not my intention to lift this ban on the importation of Thai chicken until such time as there is an independent evaluation of the situation there, in view of the history that a number of you have referred to. The evaluation will be made as a result of a visit from the inspectors of the FVO and following a report from them as to the situation.
Concerning feathers, again I refer you to my earlier answer: that ban has been in place since 28 January.
Mrs Cardoso made reference to the vulnerability of pigs and I would confirm that this is a concern and is being watched very closely. There have been reports of some infection found in the noses of some pigs in Vietnam, but it has not extended any further and there has been no evidence of mutation of the flu virus. This is, however, being watched very closely because of the similarity between the immune system of pigs and of humans. Therefore, as she rightly points out, it is of considerable concern.
Mr Wyn asked me whether the health authorities are doing everything that they can to stop the spread of this disease. I am impressed by the work undertaken by my own staff. I have had detailed consultations and briefings and I am satisfied that their own work, their interaction with the WHO, the FAO and the OIE, and also their interaction with the experts in the Member States, indicate to me that this issue is being taken very seriously, that the officials, at both national and international level, understand the seriousness of this and that they are doing everything in their power to ensure that the disease is not spread.
One of the difficulties being faced in some poorer areas is that the stamping-out of the disease is best achieved by killing the birds in question. This is of course a matter of concern in poor countries, because unless the authorities involved face up to the question of compensation there is a risk that a disease of this kind may be hidden. That may be a contributing factor to the earlier lack of full transparency about this issue in that part of the world. This has to be faced and we have to emphasise it in our relations with the authorities in Member States. These kinds of diseases cannot be hidden, their presence will come out, will be known, and the consequences ultimately will be worse for those countries who engage in that exercise, because they undermine the confidence of the authorities engaged in food safety, like ours in the European Union. The stringent measures necessary before the ban is lifted in Thailand, with the requirement that there will be independent evaluation, will be particularly necessary in this instance because of the lack of transparency at an earlier stage. We must be assured that our own authorities are satisfied, which is why no lifting of the ban in Thailand will take place until the FVO has carried out an inspection on the ground and reported back that things are satisfactory.
Mrs Jackson also asked me whether, in view of the likelihood of concealment, we are getting good information and whether we have a proper rapid response team in place. As I indicated in my earlier remarks, there is in existence an early warning response system. This system is in place, working from Luxembourg, and has been in operation for some time. You will remember when I reported to Parliament last year on the SARS issue, I also pointed to the work of this committee. There is a Communicable Diseases Network which also works in conjunction with the relevant authorities in the Member States. I am absolutely satisfied that the system of rapid response that we have in relation to animal and human diseases is very effective. You will remember the very quick response of the Commission and my services to the outbreak of foot and mouth disease some years ago, when the Commission responded within a matter of hours and all the relevant authorities and Member States knew within a matter of hours that there had been this outbreak in the United Kingdom. The same is true of public health because we have this system in place.
Mention was also made of the next item on Parliament's agenda: the legislation establishing the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. I can assure Parliament that the evidence is there that the Commission and other institutions of the European Union are working well to respond quickly to these kinds of issues and to give proper information to the public and, indeed, to respond well and appropriately to outbreaks of this kind.
On the question of food labelling, there is Community law in place relating to labelling. It may need upgrading and I am looking at that. The legislation in place requires country of origin labelling and certification and stamps from countries such as Thailand. So, if cooked chicken from Thailand comes pre-packed it has a stamp on it which indicates that and the label also states the country of origin which, as I indicated in this case, is Thailand.
Mrs Roth-Behrendt asked me if we are doing enough in respect of avian flu and, in particular, blocking food products from Asia. It is important to emphasise that we do not trade in any poultry products with any country in Asia other than Thailand, so the responses given relate to that country. Of course we are concerned about the outbreak of animal and bird diseases in other parts of the world and we make sure that we respond properly to those issues.
As a number of people mentioned during this debate, we must not lose sight of the fact that we have had these outbreaks of avian influenza in the European Union also. We had an outbreak in Italy two or three years ago; we had an outbreak in the Netherlands last year; there have been outbreaks in Belgium and Germany too.
Mrs Roth-Behrendt also asked me what I am doing about imports from China. It is public knowledge that we banned imports from China some years ago; there was a lot of publicity about that at the time. There are a number of food products we do not import from China, including poultry.
On the question of research into vaccinations, this is being done – DG Research does have a research programme on food safety. On this same subject which Mrs Roth-Behrendt and others referred to, an informal meeting of the health ministers of the EU and accession countries will be taking place in Brussels on Thursday evening. One of the items on the agenda is the question of the stockpiling of vaccines in respect of diseases of this kind, of which flu is obviously one. We had a discussion in Parliament last year on appropriate responses to the bioterrorism issue, such as stockpiling vaccines against smallpox. There is ongoing work in relation to that also. However, I must emphasise, as Mr Liese has said, that the competences available to us at European Union level in respect of public health issues are quite limited. An attempt was made to extend these competences in the European Convention and we made some progress. I still have hopes that we might ultimately make more progress on this before the finalisation of the Constitution."@en1
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