Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-02-05-Speech-4-008"
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"en.20090205.3.4-008"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, today we are discussing what is known as the ‘open declaration’. This is about transparency with regard to feed as the basis for healthy food for consumers, and it is about giving purchasers of compound feed an overview of what is supplied to them.
It has been a long road but, if we adopt this Regulation today, I hope this brings matters to a successful conclusion, and I should like to thank the Commission, which has helped us a great deal with its constructive work on the issues. The Commission encountered absolute political will on the part of Parliament to push through this open declaration, and also experienced a stubborn but fair debate with the Council. We can be proud of the results.
Let us take a brief look at the history. We had the BSE crisis and, in 1997, the Temporary Committee of Inquiry issued its final report in which Parliament called for this open declaration. The Commission presented a proposal, which subsequently became Directive 2002/2/EC. In a compromise with the Council – this went through all the bodies – the Directive pushed through the open declaration, which meant that labels had to state the ingredients with a ± 15% tolerance, and the exact composition had to be provided on request.
That was a directive rather than a regulation, and Member States implemented it only very hesitantly or not at all. The feed industry brought an action to the European Court of Justice, and the Court gave the following first-class confirmation: apart from the exact information, the legality of this Directive was not in dispute. We then took account of this judgment in a further procedure in Parliament, and have now brought matters to a conclusion in the form of this Regulation. I had the honour of being rapporteur each time and, throughout this long period, I enjoyed extremely intensive cooperation with the Commission that was based on trust.
Today we have a result that has been fought for hard but fairly, and of which we can be proud. It is also apparent that it enjoys the support of the majority in this House and of the groups. There are no amendments, from which I conclude that this Regulation will indeed be adopted by a large majority. Therefore, we have a good Regulation that brings about the open declaration in three steps – you know what they are – firstly, the components in descending percentage order; secondly, the provision of information to feed businesses with a ± 15% tolerance – in this regard we have not laid down a reservation of intellectual property rights in this legislation, but rather referred to the general legislation – and thirdly, the provision of exact information to the authorities.
I also wish to point out that we have set up a register. No feeding or admixing of components will now take place in the European Union without such components being published, as they must be included in the register. This is important not only to the supervisory authorities but also to the public and to customers. From the point of view of the rapporteur, therefore, I can say that I am very satisfied with the result overall."@en1
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