Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-11-25-Speech-3-470"
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"en.20091125.28.3-470"2
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"Madam President, I would like to thank the Commissioner for her statement, where she outlined that the range of protections and measures are there to ensure that third-country imports are meeting the highest standards possible. I want to look in particular at the FVO report from Brazil. Proper traceability systems and designated holdings in Brazil are at the heart of the measures that the EU has requested be put in place to prevent any threat or risk of contaminated meat products being imported into the EU from that country. They are fundamental in guaranteeing to EU consumers, farmers and taxpayers that there are no risks.
Let us not forget that foot-and-mouth disease is still a serious problem in Brazil. Yet the Commission’s FVO report in February highlighted a catalogue of failures: 50% of the farms which were inspected which were designated for exports to the EU had problems. 25% of these with serious problems, with missing ear tags identified, cattle on farms which could not be identified – they had no idea where they came from. There was a lack of documentation; there were conflict-of-interest issues; EU inspectors found that one of the government supervisors just happened to be married to the person responsible for cattle identification – and it turned out that they actually own some of the cattle on that holding where the stock records were inaccurate.
My concern, Commissioner, is that the summary of that FVO report stated that all the controls were generally satisfactory. But I am sorry, the content does not support that conclusion whatsoever, and we must, as a group of nations, be on our guard. I do not need to remind the House of the impact a major disease outbreak can have on taxpayers, farmers and customers. In the last major disease outbreak in the UK which you referred to in your speech, foot and mouth erupted and we destroyed a million animals and it cost our taxpayers GBP 4 billion. That is the kind of risk we run if we do not get this right, so we must be vigilant.
I am not asking for restrictions to be put on Brazil; what I am asking from the Commissioner here tonight is an assurance that this matter is taken seriously and that the Commission makes sure that the failings identified in the report are corrected in the next report. We need to see a clean bill of health to reassure farmers, taxpayers and consumers that they are protected and that free and fair trade can resume between Brazil and the EU."@en1
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