Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-02-10-Speech-2-305"
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"en.20040210.11.2-305"2
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"Mr President, I was interested to hear Commissioner Byrne say that some of the findings exceed the limits. This is because, according to press reports when this scientific study was first published, a statement was issued claiming that a spokesperson from Commissioner Byrne's office had agreed with the assessment made by the United Kingdom Food Standards Agency that the levels of chemicals in our European salmon did not exceed EU limits. I welcome the fact that this position has now been revised, because what we are talking about here is about consumers.
Background levels have to be taken into account. The issue needs to be addressed as to why those background levels are there in the first place. That is something that also has to be tackled.
From these studies it has been quite clear that farmed salmon have a significantly higher contaminant burden than wild salmon – that is what the report says – and that farmed salmon from Europe are significantly more contaminated than farmed salmon from South and North America. A lot of people have long seen that there is obviously some sort of health risk in relation to farmed fish. We are now saying that consumption of farmed salmon should be limited to a certain amount per week, or per month, which raises a question about the threat to consumers. It should be clearly labelled so that consumers know what they are eating and have that choice.
I raised the issue with the President of Parliament, Pat Cox, and asked him to request the European Food Safety Authority to issue a scientific opinion on the problem. He agreed to do so. Unfortunately, we have still not received the letter which he was going to send. It is crucial that this should not be further delayed, because we are not just talking about salmon here. An issue which has not been raised at all is that other carnivorous fish species, for example tuna, cod, sea bass, sea bream and trout, are farmed in similar conditions and probably exposed to similar contamination. This is an issue which needs to be addressed, not just in relation to farmed salmon but in relation to other farmed fish.
Finally, I see that the United Kingdom Government has adopted protection principles to safeguard Scottish salmon. They should adopt protection methods to safeguard the consumer."@en1
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